HC: Wayanad landslides an instance of nature reacting to human apathy and greed

It said that the natural disasters in 2018 and 2019, the pandemic that persisted for nearly two years and the recent landslides "have shown us the error of our ways"

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The landslides that hit Wayanad district in Kerala claiming over 200 lives was just another instance of nature reacting to human "apathy and greed", the High Court here has said.

The court said that the "warning signs" had appeared a long time ago but "we chose to ignore them in pursuit of a development agenda that would supposedly put our state on the high road to economic prosperity".

It said that the natural disasters in 2018 and 2019, the pandemic that persisted for nearly two years and the recent landslides "have shown us the error of our ways".

"If we do not mend our ways and take affirmative remedial action now, perhaps it will be too late," a bench of justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Syam Kumar V M said while hearing a plea initiated on its own by the court following the July 30 landslides that completely wiped away three villages in Wayanad with 119 people still unaccounted for.

The court suo motu initiated the PIL "to persuade the state government to introspect on its currently held notions for sustainable development in the state of Kerala and revisit its policy regarding the same", the bench said in its order of August 23.