The Demography of Dispossession: Who Really Bears Kerala’s Climate Burden?
Floods do not just swallow land - they trace forgotten histories. Landslides do not just destroy homes - they unearth centuries of injustice. In Kerala, every monsoon carries more than rain; it carries memories - of caste, of displacement, of a land divided long before disaster struck. Between 2010 and 2025, Kerala has faced a relentless cascade of climate catastrophes: from the devastating 2018 floods to the landslides in Wayanad and Kavalappara and cyclones like Tauktae. But these are not simply ‘natural’ disasters. They follow a map - drawn not by nature, but by history. This blog traces that scary map. It asks - Why do disasters always seem to find the same people, in the same places? Why is it always the hills, the wetlands and the coasts that collapse and why are these terrains mostly inhabited by adivasis, dalits and fisherfolk? This is not coincidence. It is political geography, colonial legacy and caste apartheid embedded deep in Kerala’s social psyche. This is not just a clim...