Nilgiri Documentation Center (NDC) slammed district administration’s recent claims on landslip-prone areas,calling them ‘misleading’ and ‘dangerous.’ This comes after Collector Lakshmi Bhavya Tanneeru announced a cut in identified landslip sites from 283 to 156.
Venugopal Dharmalingam, NDC's honorary director, said the earlier 283 figure was based on an ‘unscientific’ Revenue Department assessment. He called it ‘unfortunate’ and questioned the competence of involved agencies. In January 2025,Tanneeru testified before National Green Tribunal, saying a nine-member technical committee found the original number due to severe monsoon rainfall .
Dharmalingam noted the study was done by Nilgiris District Disaster Management Agency and Revenue and Disaster Management Department in 2024 . He expressed concern over why these agencies,lacking expertise,were tasked with the study. Also slammed administration for using Geological Survey of India (GSI) report to justify fewer landslip-prone areas,calling this misleading.
“The GSI study has only identified 156 ‘highly’ vulnerable locations from the list of vulnerable spots,” Dharmalingam said,stressing need for more preparedness, not less.
He cited a 1982 GSI report warning that preventing Nilgiris’ environmental degradation was already too late: “The harm has been done . present stage is one of repairing damage.” Dharmalingam warned that manipulating these numbers could lower disaster preparedness, risk development in vulnerable areas, and play into hands of ‘real estate mafia.’ Urged administration to make GSI report public for transparency. Will they listen…?
