KALPETTA: The mudslide at the tunnel road construction site has once again cast doubts over whether such a massive project can be safely carried out in Wayanad’s ecologically fragile terrain.
It has also strengthened long-standing objections raised by environmental organisations against tunnelling through Western Ghats and calls for continuous monitoring.
“This is not about opposing development, but about protecting human lives and one of the most fragile mountain ecosystems in the country,” environmental activist N Badusha, president of the Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi (WPSS), told TNIE.
“The mudslide has once again demonstrated why we repeatedly warned against carrying out such a massive excavation project in this terrain. Wayanad has suffered enough disasters. Instead, the government should have strengthened and widened the existing ghat roads, which would have been safer, faster and far cheaper.”
Earlier, the WPSS, through a PIL legally challenged the environmental clearance granted for the Rs 2,100-crore-plus twin-tube tunnel project. In December 2025, the HC dismissed the petition, observing that no procedural irregularity had been found in granting of environmental clearance. The SC upheld the HC verdict this April.
Both the previous LDF and current UDF governments have defended the project, describing it as an initiative designed to improve connectivity between Kozhikode and Wayanad by bypassing the accident-prone Thamarassery Ghat.
However, following the mudslide, the debate has shifted to questions regarding execution, worker safety and disaster preparedness.
Environmentalists maintain that even if statutory approvals exist, continuous monitoring is essential in a landscape where intense rainfall, unstable slopes and recurring landslides have become increasingly frequent.