Environmental organisations in the district have urged the Wayanad district administration to reject the proposal of an all-party action council to lift the restrictions on high-rises in Wayanad.
The District Disaster Management Authority had issued the order on restrictions in 2015 to curb the mushrooming of huge concrete constructions in the hill district, a biodiversity hotspot and ecologically fragile area in the Western Ghats.
According to the directive, the maximum height of a building, including underground constructions, in the Lakkidi area of Vythiri grama panchayat, an ecologically sensitive area, is restricted to 8 metres (maximum two floors). In municipality areas and other areas in the district, constructions are limited to maximum 15 metres (maximum five-floor level) and 10 metres (three-floor level) respectively. Moreover, 500 metres around two ecologically sensitive towns in Vythiri grama panchayat, including Vythiri and Thalippuzha, were declared as red zones.
“The restrictions are not giving any inconvenience to the public, including farmers, tribespeople, and plantation workers,” N. Badusha, president, Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti, said. Instead, they provided solace to hundreds of families that had been facing landslip threats, he added.
According to the study of the Hume Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology, as many as 1,132 incidents of landslips occurred in the district in 2018 and the major incidents were reported in Vythiri grama panchayat (181) and Pozhuthana grama panchayat (71).
As many as 38 landslips were reported in the grama panchayat in 2019 and a two-storied building of the grama panchayat caved in. More than 90% of the landslips were reported in the areas where hills had been bulldozed for constructing commercial buildings, roads, and houses, the study revealed.
The illegal and unscientific land usage in the grama panchayat with the support of political leaders, government officials, and the construction mafia had forced the DDMA to issue such a directive and the organisation would legally challenge any move to dilute it, Mr. Badusha said.
