Kerala disaster management: Panel lauds model but flags warning, land-use gaps
The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has submitted a report to the Rajya Sabha on disaster management in Kerala, highlighting both strengths and critical shortcomings in the State's preparedness. The assessment comes as Kerala continues to face recurring extreme-weather events, including floods, landslides, and coastal erosion, during successive monsoon seasons.
The committee identified persistent gaps in last-mile dissemination of early warnings, particularly in landslide-prone and remote areas. It also noted technological limitations in hyper-local weather prediction, landslide early-warning accuracy, and real-time flood-inundation modelling. These limitations, combined with high population density, environmental degradation, and urban encroachment in ecologically sensitive zones, are increasing disaster risks, the report said.
Enforcement of building regulations, land-use planning norms, and coastal regulation provisions remains uneven, especially at the local level. The committee has recommended strengthening public awareness of multi-hazard warning systems to address these gaps.
Kerala's unique geography—a narrow coastal belt, dense river network, ecologically fragile Western Ghats, and high population density—creates overlapping hazard exposures, particularly during intense monsoons. According to the report, about 14.5% of the State is flood-prone, 14.4% is landslide-prone, and more than half of its coastline is vulnerable to coastal hazards.
Despite these vulnerabilities, the committee lauded Kerala's decentralised disaster management framework. Disaster Management Plans are prepared at the State, district, and Local Self-Government levels. These plans are reviewed after every major disaster and updated annually through the 'Orange Book', an operational document that integrates response strategies, financial provisions, and departmental responsibilities.
The committee also appreciated Kerala's advanced early-warning and monitoring systems, particularly the 'Kerala Warning, Crisis and Hazard Management' (KaWaCHaM) system, which integrates multi-hazard alerts for floods, landslides, storms, and tsunamis. Technologies such as GIS-based hazard mapping, remote sensing, flood modelling, and landslide early-warning systems were acknowledged as positive steps.
The role of community volunteers, including Aapda Mitra volunteers and large-scale voluntarism networks, was praised for augmenting the State's response capacity. More than 4,500 trained volunteers are actively engaged in first response during floods and landslides.
However, the committee stressed that gaps persist despite Kerala developing a comprehensive and decentralised model integrating community participation, technology, and anticipatory planning. It called for sustained efforts to strengthen risk-informed development norms, technological capabilities for forecasting and modelling, last-mile connectivity, and public awareness. It also urged addressing flaws in land-use and construction practices.
Responding to the report, Kerala State Disaster Management Authority Member Secretary Sekhar L. Kuriakose said curbing inappropriate land use and construction practices and improving public awareness were among the issues the State government needed to address. He noted that improving forecast accuracy, including hyper-local weather prediction, falls under the Union government's responsibility, as meteorological organisations are in the Union List (Entry 53 of List I).
"The State will seriously take note of the suggestions and improve its part, while the forecast-related issues are expected to be addressed by the Centre," Mr. Kuriakose said.
