KOCHI: The Kerala State Electricity Board, which maintains major dams like Idukki, Idamalayar and Sabarigiri, should place the recordings in the dam maintenance logbook on public domain to convince people about the procedure followed during the opening of dam shutters on August 15, said ecologist Madhav Gadgil.
"All data regarding the procedural regimes of reservoir management should be made available to the public so that experts in the civil society can examine them and create a consensus on remedial measures to avoid such disasters in future. If the logbook is made available for public scrutiny, it'll help stop mismanagement of natural resources which often lead to catastrophe like the recent floods," he told Express.
According to experts, there is a regime regarding storage of water in dams, that is broadly followed. The regime says the dams in Kerala should be full only by the end of monsoon and not midway through, like what happened in this case. Prima facie, there seems to be every evidence that the decision to store maximum water in the dam was improper and unscientific, said Gadgil.