Locals say illegal quarries could be root cause of Kerala calamity

The viral video of a house collapsing by the storng waters of the Manimala river in the Kottayam district showed one of the most distressing scenes of this year's calamity in Kerala. Right from that spot, on the hills on the other side of the river in Idukki district, the possible cause for the disaster can be seen: live quarries.

Even as experts try to understand back-to-back calamities and reasons for the floods and landslides, locals believe massive quarrying activities in the locality could be behind the floods.

Yendayar, about 10 km from Koottickal in Kottayam, was ravaged by flood and landslides. A large quantity of rocks that accumulated at the river at Yendayar is attributing the floods to a nearby region named Valyenthi, which is also known for quarries.

"Aiming at huge profits, the quarry operators use excessive explosives beyond permissible limits for blasting purposes. It is a basic logic that such acts would have its impact on the entire region as the rocks and soil would get displaced and loose and tend to fall when it rains," Yendayar native Sinumon said.

A series of landslides and landslips ravaged the hilly areas of Idukki and Kottayam districts last week, but only the areas where lives were lost got noticed.

A section of locals also accused a nexus of politicians with the quarrying lobbies. "On several occasions, I had seen vehicles of a former MLA from the locality proceeding to the premises of a prominent quarry owner in the region during the odd hours," a local trader of the locality said.

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