If the draft environmental impact assessment report is any indication, the twin tunnel project involves 16 hazards and risks.
Published Dec 06, 2023 | 11:00 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 06, 2023 | 11:00 AM
The Chembra Peak in Wayanad. Photo: Sandeep Das
The collapse of the under-construction Silkyara Bend–Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand and the 17-day operation that followed to rescue 41 trapped workers have highlighted the potential risks involved in a similar type of proposed construction aimed at decongesting the national highway between Kozhikode and Bengaluru via Wayanad and Bandipur.
The multi-crore Wayanad twin-tunnel project, heavily pushed by the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government in Kerala, involves 16 hazards and dangers, according to the draft environment impact assessment report.
Ground vibrations and overpressure from blasting, instability of surrounding rocks, handling of blasting fumes and dust, the possibility of sudden flooding and collapse, and other risks posed by flyrocks and explosives are among the risks cited by experts in the digging of the 8.11-km tunnel.
The area is vulnerable to landslides, the report said. It also mentioned that Puthumala, where 17 people were killed in landslides triggered by flashfloods and severe rains in 2019, is close to the tunnel project’s permitted alignment. Surface soil erosion caused by soil pipes triggered the landslide.
It further stated that landslides in the future should be considered even after the completion of the project.
Following the cancellation of its much-touted SilverLine semi-high-speed rail project due to environmental, social, and economic challenges, the Pinarayi Vijayan government is now embarking on the multi-crore tunnel project, which is expected to ease traffic congestion on the Thamarassery ghat road section.
The section has nine hairpin bends over a 12-kilometer stretch, and traffic jams, often stretching for hours, are common.
The present Wayanad Ghat Road. Photo: S Dhruvaraj
According to the government, the tunnel’s speed restriction would be 80 kmph, and it would help save at least one hour of travel time between north Kerala and Bengaluru, and Mysuru.
However, the project’s economic and environmental sustainability have become a topic of hot debate in Kerala, and the government has stated unequivocally that it will not back down from implementing the plan.
According to government authorities, the groundwork for the project — the country’s third-largest tunnel road — has already begun in Kozhikode and Wayanad districts, and the construction work of the ₹858-crore project is scheduled to begin in January 2024.
However, the Silkyara project’s collapse has reignited protests in both Wayanad and Kozhikode, and conservationists and experts are now urging the government to look for economically and environmentally viable alternatives.
They suggested developing or widening the existing alternative routes between North Kerala and Karnataka, such as the Ghat roads at Nadukani, Pakramthalam, Perya, Thamarassery, and Palchuram.
Many experts expressed the belief that further developing the Thamarassery Ghat Road will ease the congestion. Earlier, a road from Kozhikode to Mysuru via Wayanad, avoiding the ghat section was mooted.
After the Silkyara incident, environmental groups have begun to put pressure on the government to reconsider the twin-tunnel project, which would run beneath a severely endangered natural zone in the Western Ghats.
The Konkan Railway Corporation Limited is currently carrying out survey work for the project. The chief minister is promoting it in his ongoing Nava Kerala Yatra as a significant intervention to significantly reduce the traffic woes in the Wayanad ghat section.
However, critics pointed out that the state administration took up the multi-billion-rupee project without carrying out a financial feasibility analysis, a failsafe environmental impact assessment, or a thorough sociological impact assessment.
All such studies, according to the rules, must be completed before the start of such undertakings. Environmentalists are concerned that the tunnel project will generate hundreds of tonnes of rock, endangering the rich biodiversity of the highly sensitive region with elephant corridors existing for centuries, besides posing the threat of frequent collapses.
They also claimed that if the tunnel is built, it will trigger natural disasters in Wayanad and Kozhikode districts, which are already prone to yearly floods and landslides.
”Now, an attempt is being made to blast a gigantic tunnel through a critical area of the Western Ghats, and that too in an area where three significant landslides have happened in the recent past,” CK Vishnu Das, director of the Wayanad-based Hume Centre for Ecology and Wildlife, said.
He felt that if the proposed twin tunnels are built, cars will have to travel an additional 20 km, besides spending 30 more minutes on the road.
The Western Ghats ecology committees of Madhav Gadgil and Kasthurirangan have designated the region as ecologically sensitive and a no-development zone.
The area is rich in biodiversity, and for the past three years, climate change-induced rainfalls have been regular throughout the year.
The highest point in Kozhikode district, Vavul Mala, which resembles a camel’s hump, stands at 7,677 feet, and the tunnel road alignment lies close below it.
Vavul Mala is one of the Western Ghats’ most environmentally sensitive places, having a border with the mountain ranges of Wayanad in Kerala and the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu.
.The forest region between Kozhikode and Wayanad Photo: Sandeep Das.
Environmentalists pointed out that Vavul Mala and its surroundings are home to a variety of flora that can only be found in the Nilgiris-Wayanad-Kodagu stretch of the Western Ghats. It is one of the wettest places in the Western Ghats.
Chembra Peak, one of Wayanad’s best eco-tourism destinations with a lake at the top, is only a short distance from the tunnel project.
The heart-shaped natural lake is nestled in a Shola forest, which is home to several rare bird species, including the Banasura laughingthrush, also known as the Banasura Chilappan.
If Vijayan’s dream idea becomes a reality, commuters may eventually cross a variety of environmentally sensitive locations via an underground tunnel.
In 2019, the Geological Survey of India advised the state government to limit human intervention in the sensitive area to a bare minimum.
When asked about environmental concerns, Vijayan stated that the tunnel road would be completed only after “protecting the ecosystem and forests of the Western Ghats stretch”.
He claimed that the landslip vulnerabilities of Puthumala and nearby Meppadi will be taken into account.
The tunnel will end at the Meppadi region of Wayanad, a high-intensity rainfall area that receives surplus rain every monsoon, according to N Badusha, president of the environmental organisation, Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi.
Meppadi was identified as a very vulnerable place by the Gadgil and Kasturirangan Committees, which examined environmental deterioration in the Western Ghats. The area is also a safe sanctuary for Asian elephants.
“A tunnel, according to authorities, would not harm the region’s rich woods or virgin slopes. In any case, it is devoid of any extensive research. We believe that mining barons influenced the decision to construct the tunnel since huge quantities of granite and stones would be drilled and removed,” Badusha told South First.
Environmentalist Sreedhar Radhakrishnan stated that the tunnel project demonstrates that literate Kerala has not learnt lessons from the previous floods that caused devastation in both Wayanad and Kozhikode districts.
“The state’s remaining green cover is under attack by the so-called development lobby. They are carrying out the goal of vested interests with tremendous greed to steal natural resources,” he told South First.
He stated that the tunnel project would generate hundreds of tonnes of rock, endangering the fragile region’s unique biodiversity. Furthermore, tunnelling will disrupt elephant migration routes in the region.
While the government claimed that the project would make Wayanad residents happy, numerous residents have expressed doubts about its viability.
“Floods and landslides have become an annual occurrence in Wayanad. Such development initiatives would compound the problem,” K Raveendran, a resident of Pozhuthana near Vythiri, said.
Vythiri and adjacent villages witnessed large-scale landslides during the 2018 rains, and the rubble destroyed the local bus stop and police station. Vythiri is close to the proposed tunnel.
The tunnel, the chief minister said, will be completed in 34 months.
