Centre conspiring to blame Kerala for Wayanad disaster: Minister

The Union environment ministry has conspired to blame the Kerala government for the Wayanad landslide by soliciting anti-Kerala articles from scientists, Kerala industries minister P Rajeev said on Tuesday.

But when no one complied with the Centre’s request, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav stepped forward with false statements, the Kerala minister said.

Rajeev was referring to Yadav's statement that the Kerala government allowed "illegal human habitat expansion and mining" in the ecologically fragile region, leading to the devastating landslides in Wayanad.

Centre’s charge against Kerala

Yadav accused the government of neglecting crucial environmental factors such as soil topography, rock conditions, geomorphology, mountain slopes and vegetation structure while permitting human habitation.

"An episode of extreme rain led to the incident," Yadav added.

Rajeev, in a post on social media platform X, said the conspiracy was hatched "when the entire state was engaged in rescue efforts".

Kerala minister’s counter

He said the news reports highlighted attempts to blame the state government's policies for the disaster, including alleged efforts by the Press Information Bureau "to solicit anti-Kerala articles from scientists with unauthenticated information".

He also said that the Malayalam media had already debunked Union home minister Amit Shah's "false claim" that Kerala was warned about the landslide.

"The Centre's failure to provide warnings is evident, and this attempt to cover up will be exposed in the future. The state government is striving for a scientific study of the landslide that occurred in an area with no human interventions," he said on X.