DESTRUCTION OF
ENVIRONMENT AND ITS
AFTER EFFECTS.
[IN THE CONTEXT OF KERALA
FLOOD]
By
Athira Sajeev B
MOTHER NATURE
The natural with all its
environment, ecosystem
services, comprises the
entire basis for life on the
.
planet. Its value is therefore
impossible to quantify or
even model.
Mining And Quarrying Impacts
• Mining and quarrying
extract a wide range of
useful materials from
the ground such as coal,
metals, and stone.
• It can be very destructive to the
environment. They have a direct
impact on the countryside by leaving
pits and heaps of waste material
Impacts and Issues
• The environmental impacts of
mining and quarrying are several.
While the extractions are
underway, the landscape is visibly
disfigured and habitat loss can be
extensive.
• The mining operations themselves
and the accompanying spoil heaps
cause a drastic change in the location
with direct destruction of habitat and
blocking or burying nearby bodies of
water.
Landslide Triggers – What Causes a Landslide?
Landslides may be caused due to
several reasons that may be active
individually or in combination. Some
of the major causes are:
1. Extensive Rainfall
• The most prominent landslide
trigger is prolonged and heavy
intensity rainfall.
• The trigger may also occur
even if the rainfall intensity is
moderate, but the rain
duration and pore pressure are
high.
2. Melting of Snow
In several cold mountain places, snowmelt is
frequent and may be a vital process for the
occurrence of landslides.
3. Rivers
Rivers can damage the slopes, particularly
during the floods that trigger a landslide.
The slope disturbance increases the slope
gradient, decreasing the stability.
3. Seismic Shaking
Earthquake waves through the rocks and
earth create accelerations that alter the
gravitational forces on the slope.
The vertical accelerations consecutively
change the load on the slope; the
horizontal accelerations cause a shearing
force because of the landslide inertia.
These processes are significant in the
hilly areas where the seismic waves
cause an increase in the ground
accelerations.
4. Liquefaction
• The movement of the earthquake
waves through the ground can
produce liquefaction.
• During this process, shaking causes
the pore space reduction. The high
density raises the pore pressure in
the ground.
Man made factors that can cause land slides
• Construction work without proper survey
of the site & without designinig &
engineering inputs.
• Irrational farming techniques
• Removal of vegetation cover &
deforestation
• Sand mining
• Quarrying
Deforestation
• Deforestation is the permanent
destruction of forests in order to make
the land available for other uses.
• An estimated 18 million acres (7.3
million hectares) of forest, which is
roughly the size of the country of
Panama, are lost each year, according to
the United Nations' Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO).
• Exploding human population
requires more land to live and
harvesting so they need to cut the
forests.
• It is affecting the
human lives to a
great extent by
forcing the negative
changes to the
environment and
atmosphere.
Deforestation results in many effects like
• loss of animal home
• animals are dying
• environment change
• seasonal change
• increasing temperature
• rising environmental heat
• global warming
• Increasing green house gas effect
• melting ice caps and glaciers
• Increasing seas level
• weakening ozone layer
• hole in the ozone layer
• sea animal dying
• increasing risks of natural disaster like
storm, cyclone, typhoon, flood,
drought, etc.
Kerala flood : a great lesson
KERALA FLOOD
Ordinarily, the flooding of rivers is a very
gradual process as it takes time for enough
rainfall to percolate through the ground
and cause the water level to rise
sufficiently so that it overflows before
reaching the sea.
• Flash flooding, however, gives no such
warning.
• In the case of Kerala, the weather is
part of the four-month monsoon rainy
season that strikes the Indian
subcontinent every summer.
• The heavy rate of environmental
destruction caused flash flood in
Kerala.
• The unscientific constructions and
farming strategies leads increased
the rate of severity of flood
A post-disaster analysis by an official team
that included experts from soil
conservation department at Puthumala
found that:
• In puthumala the felling of a large
number of trees during late 1980s and
the recent cardamom farming might
have caused the massive landslide on
August 8.
• Puthumala is an agricultural area,
and a little further, in the lower
parts, are plantation areas, where
numerous migrant workers are
reported missing.
• The quarters for labourers, which
have six rooms each, are reported
to be affected
• Giving licence for big quarries in the
Western Ghats without any restrictions
and thus committing lapses in the
conservation of the Western Ghats had
resulted in the deluge.
• A similar case can be cited from the
Kerala floods last year where huge
amount of water was released from
dams leading to severe floods in the
state.
What should we do?
• We should take an oath that we will
never hurt our environment
• We should take proper initiatives to
reduce rate of the deforestation
• Plant as much as plants and go
green.
• Government should take proper
steps to reduce the unscientific
constructions
• Strict punishments should be
given to those who cause
damage to water bodies.
• Unsecure sand mining and
quarrying should be strictly
prohibited.
• Most importantly everyone should
love the nature and the change
should happen from oneself.
First you change yourself…..
Be the initiator…..
Be the leader…..
Then the world will follow
your footsteps…….
Thank you…..
