Identity, Space and Disaster: A Case Study of Pettimudi Landslide in Kerala

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss the importance of ‘geographical, economic and vulnerable space’ in disaster risk management. This article considers the life world of vulnerable labourers in a private plantation land as space. This space determines vulnerable labourers in a private plantation land, determining government interventions. This article is dependent on secondary data, informed discussion with local community members and media reports on community response to the post-landslide. Interviews with community members and secondary data have been analysed concerning the total perspicuity of spatial vulnerability. The focus of the space discussed in this article is the community’s life world. Disaster displaces, kills and destroys economic resources, and it is common across the world. There are variations in the number of deaths and amount of economic loss depending on the structure and space in which a natural disaster happens. This article discusses a landslide in the private plantation land and attempts to demonstrate how the authority and the government intervened and how the spacial risk limits such government interventions? The landslide killed poor workers living in poor-quality labour settlements; however, the government and the plantation company tried various reasons to divert the attention from the spatial vulnerability prevalent in the area and cited heavy rains as the only reason. The article attempts to discuss this critical issue in the historical context of the plantation that evolved through the colonial period and labour control in the given space. The article offers a theoretical debate on space and provides critical insight into ‘space and identity’ in disaster risk and rehabilitation management.