Kerala is the third most thickly populated Indian state. The western ghats, or Sahyadri, covers more than 50% of Kerala state. Although Sahyadri would translate literally to "endurable mountains", they have continually attracted socio-political attention owing to the popular notion that this area cannot endure the mismatch between environmental fragility and infrastructure demand for long. It is thus imperative that there be approaches that seek equilibria on these mutually contradicting requirements.
The Kerala Public Works Department, and especially their Roads Division, would be one of the primary stakeholders who are battling this mismatch. Road projects span across incomparable lengths than other infrastructural projects. Rainfall triggered landslides, debris flow and slope failures, especially along roadways, are very frequent in this region, which are always life threatening and cause traffic interruption and property damage.
Road projects, thus have to be planned at a systematic level, considering proper combinations of solutions that would make the project sustainable, resilient and environmentally friendly. This project intends to kick-start a discourse under such broad a context, through a pilot study that focuses on certain immediate site-specific solutions, prolonged monitoring of existing slopes, and corridor-level analysis of vulnerability and resilience.