Chief of Disaster Mitigation and Operations at the United Nations Environment Programme Muralee Thummarukudy has said that scientific studies are the need of the hour to explore the post-flood ecological impacts in the district.
Addressing a meeting of people’s representatives and senior officials of various departments here on Wednesday, Mr. Thummarukudy said that there might be chances for a series of natural calamities such as drought, outbreak of various diseases, and forest fire in the State after the flood. Hence scientific studies using satellite images were the need of the hour. Moreover, many a time natural calamities such as landslips could be predicted with the help of those images, he said.
“The land cover changes after heavy rain, including land subsidence and fissures on land in Wayanad, is a natural process,” Mr. Thummarukudy said, adding that these had no connection with structural change. However it should be studied, he said.
Need change in mindset
“A core change should take place in the mindset of Malayalees on development. Land and houses are considered by the people in the State as an investment and it should be controlled,” Mr. Thummarukudy said.
If the government was able to control the way of thinking, there would be possibilities for sustainable development in the State, he said. However, the concept of ‘New Kerala’ should not be the reconstruction of the old State, he said.
Keralites had been quite indifferent to climate change and its impacts till a few years ago, but the flood might set the stage for scientific studies and scientific construction at least for a brief period, he said.
