BackKerala needs to shift 2.8 mn from hazard zones in the next 20 years
Rebuild Kerala Initiative chief bats for a new land-use strategy to prevent damage from natural hazardsIn August, floods killed 121 people in Kerala, mostly because of landslides
PremiumOut of the 2.8 million people living in moderate or high-hazard zones in Kerala, at least 1% must be moved out over the next five years to protect them from natural hazards. The rest should be shifted over the next 20 years, V. Venu, the man tasked with rebuilding Kerala following the devastation caused by the historic floods of 2018, said in a phone interview.
As chief executive of ‘Rebuild Kerala Initiative’, a special purpose vehicle floated by the government, Venu is currently leading an effort to rebuild Kerala from the back-to-back floods and prevent future destructions. In August this year, floods had killed 121 people in the state, mostly due to landslides that accompanied the heavy rains and flood waters.
“We (earlier) surveyed all the areas where we had landslides. The Geological Survey of India had recommended that several areas have become uninhabitable. In such areas, about 700 houses, families, are living. Based on that, the state government created a package for people to move away from these places. We offer them a bit of money, ₹6 lakh to buy land and ₹4 lakh to construct a house. Two hundred people have already moved out. I’m sure that after the 2019 floods, I’ll get all 700 (to move out)," said Venu.
“We should encourage people not to settle in such areas and, for existing settlers, find safer accommodation elsewhere. That’s a long process. We might need legislation, we might need monetary incentives, we might need disincentives. So we need a framework, we are working towards that," he added.
In the whole process, how to govern land is the elephant in the room, said Venu. “Our land use is controlled in such a fragmented fashion, in very narrow interests and specific aspects, that we miss the big picture," he added.
“The legal framework is not adequate. That is what the floods have told us. Today’s legal framework practically lets you build pretty much whatever you want, a resort or a house or a commercial building, wherever you want. They have a few stupid restrictions. And, if you fulfil those, for everything else you will get a licence. There is no regional planning, there are no carrying capacity studies. These are all very, very critical now," he said.
“The government is looking at land-use patterns so that we create a new comprehensive strategy, which may have a change of existing rules, and if necessary, the creation of new legislation and more administrative control over (land)."
What about revenue implications? “My answer to that is climate doesn’t respect revenues. Lives are certainly more important than revenues," said Venu.
The panchayats across the state were told that they should not be giving building numbers to fresh constructions in vulnerable areas, but they have gone ahead, said Venu.
“So we need to strengthen and tighten that (system). Make sure that no new buildings are being built. And down the line, we need to devise some system. We have to talk to experts and planners. There’s something called the transfer of development rights, that maybe the way forward. Or, some other incentives. I really don’t know.
These are things which, I believe, has to be debated by technical experts. We don’t have a ready made solution," he added.
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