India has experienced, over the last couple of decades, a significant escalation in climate induced disasters, in the form of extreme weather events such as heavy rainfalls, cloudbursts, devastating floods, catastrophic landslides, lightnings and storms, cold waves, heat waves and snowfalls. An analysis by Down to Earth – Centre for Science and Environment (DTE-CSE)  this year, right before  COP29, reports that India witnessed extreme weather events on 93% of the days in the first nine months of 2024, claiming 3,238 lives, affecting 3.2 million hectares of crop area, damaging 235,862 houses and killing over 9,457 animals.

Kerala, often referred to as "God's Own Country," has not been spared. On July 30, 2024, the picturesque Mundakkai-Chooralmala Hills in Meppadi panchayath in Wayanad District witnessed the worst landslide in its history, taking 420 lives, wiping out 17 families, and leaving 118 people unaccounted for. Three villages were totally devastated, shocking the nation, even as it realised that disasters have increased in frequency and intensity.

Landslides, caused by human excesses, natural phenomenon, or induced by climate change such as heavy rainfall in the Western Ghats and glacier lake bursts in the Himalayas, have similar consequences. Lives are lost, habitats destroyed, and landscapes rendered uninhabitable. In the Mundakkai-Chooralmala Landslide, about 1300 houses are fully damaged, and most of the nearly 2000 affected families want to relocate from the susceptible slopes, valleys, and ghost towns. Notwithstanding agencies like the Geological Survey of India and the National Centre for Earth Science Studies marking Meppadi panchayath around Vellarimala and Chembra Peak as landslide-prone, and repeated landslides in the region, little was done to establish an Early Warning System or a rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) plan. Disasters evoke a flurry of rescue efforts, which we indulge in, but are usually followed by never-kept promises from both State and Central Governments to rehabilitate the affected communities. As calamities become increasingly frequent and intense, current methods of R&R have shown to be no longer possible. For many disaster-affected people, government promises are not enough, and they are left waiting for lasting solutions. Such is not an isolated case in Kerala, but is the situation across India, where victims of disasters and climate refugees suffer from chronic neglect.

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A Nation in crisis – Neglected Disaster Victims and Climate Refugees

Whether in Kerala, Bihar or Uttarakhand, the plight of disaster victims across India reveals systemic failures in R&R. The pattern is consistent: immediate rescue operations dominate the response, but long-term rehabilitation remains elusive.

In Kerala, for instance, the examples of landslides like Mundakkai-Chooralmala and the Puthumala tragedy of 2019 present a very dismal trend. Legal and bureaucratic issues stall promises for safer model townships. Many families continue to live in makeshift shelters or return to unsafe places, resigned and desperate.  When in 2018, the "flood of the century" hit Kerala and took more than 400 lives and displaced thousands, many promises of "build back better” were made. Many victims are still waiting for compensation and permanent housing, especially in villages. To this date, temporary shelters, once viewed as interim solutions, have turned into semi-permanent homes for many families. The lack of proper R&R has made thousands feel hopeless about regaining normalcy.

In Bihar, the survivors of the 2008 Kosi River floods are still in the same situation, as in ten years ago. As of 2014, only 12 percent of the houses promised were built. In Uttarakhand, the 2013 flood survivors are still in poor quality shelters.

These stories call for an urgent move toward a rights-based approach to R&R- an approach based on robust legal frameworks rather than charity-driven ad-hoc solutions. Current relief measures are too rudimentary and insufficient to cater for the long-term needs of disaster-displaced people. Even years later, survivors live in squalor, waiting indefinitely for minimal aid from the government and charities. It is utterly demeaning and inhuman.

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Why the Current System Is Failing

The lack of a systematic R&R policy has placed disaster survivors in limbo for long, fueled by poverty, trauma, and uncertainty. Ad-hoc relief measures fail to address the complex needs of the displaced communities - housing, health, psychological and financial recovery. The lack of accountability and a standardized approach causes delays and inefficiencies, leaving thousands to fend for themselves.

The Mundakkai-Chooralmala disaster is a live case that offers lessons on how the ad-hoc R&R system  would get us nowhere. The Kerala government has decided that affected families be relocated to more secure townships in Meppadi and Kalpetta after identification of plantation land for acquisition under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. However, legal cases taken up by the planters have hindered the process. Meanwhile, survivors of the 2019 Puthumala landslide continue to be haunted by issues left unresolved. Families continue to pay tax on lands that no longer exist and get incessant pressure from banks over loans tied to destroyed properties.

A Rights-Based Approach to Rehabilitation and Resettlement

It is indeed clear that the present system of an ad hoc and rather patronising, though highly inadequate and non-mandatory nature of the R&R has led to serious time overruns, cost overruns, no accountability and no satisfactory delivery in time.  Disaster after disaster, state after state, the story is the same. The recurring failures in post-disaster R&R demand a shift from a charity-based approach to a more comprehensive, multi dimensional rights-based approach, where Rehabilitation and Resettlement has to be exercised as a right by the affected and the survivors, not a discretionary, sympathetic act of benevolence from the government or the larger society.

This would call for a myriad of interventions ranging from proper compensation for loss of life, properties and means of livelihood to support during recovery and resettlement and financial recovery measures such as write-offs and refinancing. There should also be statutorily established Commissions for each disaster with a case-to-case method for timely recovery and resettlement.
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It is clear that such an approach would have to be backed by statute. Drawing inspiration from the  Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013, which provides a legal framework for those displaced by development projects, a similar statute, more comprehensive and inclusive, covering all aspects of disaster affected communities and landscapes, covering all types of climate and disaster events, losses and damages, and recovery and reconstruction is urgently needed to protect the rights of disaster-affected individuals and climate refugees. Such a statute can also be used to address climate refugees, who may not be immediately hit by a climate event, but live in uninhabitable conditions, or areas with a recurring threat of a climate, weather or disaster event, and have become refugees.

Key Provisions of the Proposed Legislation:

Such legislation should establish the rights of disaster victims and survivors to fair Compensation, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, transparently and with clearly defined timelines and standards. It should be comprehensive, including the mandate to have detailed plans for permanent housing, restoration of livelihoods, health care and education, in addition to basic amenities.

It should recognize such climate-affected displaced people as climate refugees and ensure that their rights are protected by law. The law should mandate the involvement of the concerned communities in the planning and implementing of such R&R efforts as a response to their specific issues and problems. Accountability needs to be legally ensured, by establishing statutory authorities at the national and state levels to oversee R&R efforts, address grievances, and enforce compliance. The financing of the R&R process must also be mandated under law through dedicated funds at the national and state level so that they are released in time and managed efficiently with no “leakages” and corruption.

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The law can also be extended to include such persons whose lives are affected due to their settlements being in flood or landslide prone areas, or areas of Human-Wildlife Conflict, which are also designated disasters in Kerala.

Establishing a Climate-Induced Loss & Damages Fund

While addressing disaster rehabilitation, it is also essential to comprehensively estimate for loss and damages and also for recovery and reconstruction. For instance, the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) report on Kerala Floods of 2018 estimated the Loss and Damages at Rs 31,000 crores. The PDNA for the present Meppadi landslide done by the KSDMA estimates loss and damages at Rs 980 crores and recovery and reconstruction costs at Rs 2221 crores.

At the COP27 in 2022 in Egypt, the global community made historic progress by deciding to establish a Loss & Damages Fund that would deal with climate-change-induced impacts on the vulnerable nations. However, its implementation remains slow, and developing countries, such as those in South Asia, continue to experience the worst of climate disasters, with massive loss and damages, without any apt financial help. The last COP28 at Dubai renewed the need for the same and some nations made commitments, though it was by all means meager.

However, such funds and mechanisms are equally vital at national and sub-national levels, and need statutory backing. India needs to institute a National Loss & Damages Fund, along the lines of the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF), but with the emphasis for long-term R&R. This fund needs a dedicated budget at central and state levels with steady financing for R&R operations. State governments of disaster-prone states like Kerala need to prioritise this. Rebuilding infrastructure, restoring livelihoods, and enhancing resilience should be community-driven rather than relying solely on top-down relief efforts - the hallmark of most R&R cases. Effective and efficient use of the funds has to be ensured through audits and community oversights.

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Conclusion: A Call to Action

It is clear that the present approach to disaster rehabilitation in India suffers from inefficiency, lack of accountability, and even a condescending attitude. It is high time that fair compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement are ascertained and regarded as a legal right. This rights-based approach to rehabilitation and resettlement, along with Loss and Damage funds, places India in an ability to make sure that R&R support reaches disaster victims and climate refugees in time; this would enable them to return to normal ways of living within a set time frame.

The rhetoric of charity needs to give way to a commitment to justice. Not only for meeting the immediate needs in times of disaster but for preparing the country to face increasingly drastic impacts of climatic change as well. We can only build a resilient and inclusive future if every individual is given an opportunity, no matter what disaster they have to face, to rebuild life with dignity.