Every monsoon, Wayanad’s hills carry the risk of disaster.
Steep slopes, saturated soil and increasingly erratic rainfall have made this Kerala district the most landslide-prone in the state, according to a 2024 study by Indian researchers.
The danger has grown over decades. Studies show that around 62 percent of Wayanad’s green cover disappeared between 1950 and 2018, as tea plantations expanded nearly 18-fold. With forests cleared, many hillsides lost the deep root systems that once held the soil together.
When a landslide strikes, it often comes with little warning.
Today, however, a network of local residents armed with simple rain gauges is helping change that. Their daily observations are giving scientists a clearer picture of when slopes are approaching a dangerous tipping point — sometimes buying precious hours for people to move to safety.
A network born from tragedy
The story began after Kerala’s devastating floods in 2018, which claimed more than 400 lives.
In the aftermath, the Hume Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology, a research institute based in Kalpetta, set out to build a community-driven rainfall monitoring system for Wayanad.
Today, a network of local residents armed with simple rain gauges is helping enhance early warning systems.
Led by director C K Vishnudas, the team started with a handful of rain gauges. The network expanded rapidly after the 2019 Puthumala landslide, which killed 17 people.
Working with farmers, tribal communities and environmental groups, the Hume Centre gradually installed around 200 rain gauges across the district.
The strength of the system lies in its people.
Each rain gauge is looked after by a volunteer who records the day’s rainfall and shares the data with the research team. Together, these readings transform local observations into a reliable, district-wide database.
Because the network is spread across villages, plantations and tribal settlements, it captures highly localised rainfall that broader weather systems often miss.
Why local data matters
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issues weather alerts at the district or taluk level. While these warnings are essential, they cannot always identify which specific hillside or village faces the greatest danger.
The Hume Centre’s network works at a much finer scale.
A rain gauge is a meteorological instrument used to collect and measure the depth of liquid precipitation (rainfall) over a specific area, usually expressed in millimeters or inches. Photograph: (AI-generated image)
Rainfall is tracked across 25-square-kilometre grids, allowing researchers to understand how much rain has fallen in individual pockets of Wayanad.
Vishnudas and his team have also mapped previous landslide sites, classifying them into low-, medium- and high-risk zones based on rainfall thresholds, the main trigger for most landslides in the district.
By combining rainfall data with information on terrain and slope stability, the system can identify areas where the risk of a landslide is increasing, rather than issuing broad warnings for the entire district.
A system that has already saved lives
The network has already shown its value.
During an intense rainfall event in 2020, 55 rain gauges around the landslide-prone village of Mundakkai recorded nearly 1,000 mm of rainfall over a short period.
Although several homes were destroyed, residents had been evacuated in advance and no lives were lost.
The goal is simple: provide communities with enough warning to act before disaster strikes.
Researchers working on other landslide early warning technologies, including AI-based systems developed at IIT Mandi, are pursuing the same objective.
When warnings aren’t enough
The network faced its toughest test in July 2024.
The rain gauge at Thettamala recorded 409 mm of rainfall within 24 hours, shortly before the devastating Mundakkai-Chooralmala landslides that claimed more than 250 lives.
Working with farmers, tribal communities and environmental groups, the Hume Centre gradually installed around 200 rain gauges across the district.
After the disaster, the Union Home Minister informed Parliament that four early warnings indicating the possibility of rainfall exceeding 200 mm had been issued to the Kerala government in the days leading up to the event.
The Kerala government, however, maintained that a red alert for Wayanad was issued only after the disaster had already occurred.
The tragedy highlighted an important lesson: even the most accurate scientific data can save lives only if warnings are communicated clearly, trusted by decision-makers and acted upon in time.
Building resilience beyond rain gauges
Since then, Wayanad has continued to strengthen its disaster preparedness.
The district’s efforts now extend beyond rainfall monitoring. Initiatives include India’s first permanent animal evacuation shelter, forest restoration projects that help stabilise fragile slopes, and conservation work aimed at protecting wildlife corridors.
Ecologists also emphasise the importance of restoring native vegetation, whose deep root systems naturally strengthen hillsides and reduce erosion.
Together, these measures show that technology, community participation and ecological restoration can complement one another.
Ordinary people making an extraordinary difference
What makes Wayanad’s rain gauge network remarkable is not expensive technology but everyday commitment.
Every morning, farmers and volunteers step out to check rain gauges, record measurements and send the data to the Hume Centre.
Scientists analyse the information, identify emerging risks and translate the numbers into warnings that local administrators can understand and act upon.
The hills of Wayanad will always be vulnerable to landslides.
But every rain gauge installed across the district gives communities a better chance to prepare.
Sometimes, that small act of vigilance can mean the difference between loss and survival.
Images courtesy of Vikalp Sangam
