The Kerala High Court has dismissed the PIL filed by Wayanad Prakriti Samraksha Samiti against the twin tunnel project, citing procedural compliance. But legality is not the same as scientific adequacy. This article examines what was decided, what was not, and why the core scientific questions of Public remain unresolved

This Is Not About a PIL

Let us be absolutely clear at the outset.

This article discussion is not about the Public Interest Litigation filed by Wayanad Prakriti Samraksha Samiti. A PIL being dismissed or entertained is a procedural event. Courts exist in layers- High Court today, Supreme Court tomorrow and that trajectory is neither unusual nor decisive in the life of large infrastructure projects. Reducing the Wayanad twin tunnel debate to a PIL narrative does a disservice to the real issue. It turns a scientific and ecological question into a legal or activist label. That framing is shallow, misleading, and frankly unnecessary. The tunnel does not need defenders or protestors. It needs credible science

Development Is Not the Enemy

​Wayanad needs connectivity. Anyone who travels the Thamarassery Ghat or the Anakkampoyil–Kalladi–Meppadi stretch during monsoon understands this viscerally. Landslides, closures, and economic isolation are lived realities. No serious observer is arguing against a tunnel in principle

The Western Ghats Is Not a Blank Map

Wayanad sits within one of the most biologically and geologically sensitive regions on the planet. This is not sentiment; it is classification. The Western Ghats is a global biodiversity hotspot

The region hosts IUCN‑Red isted Banasura Laughingthrush (Banasura Chilappan), Nilgiri Sholakili and endemic species found nowhere else including mammals.

This Wayanad landscapes and surrounding forest corridors carry ecological and cultural memory that predates modern state boundaries that predates modern state boundaries.

Myth and science often intersect here. Ramayana narratives place Sita in these forests after war and exile. Whether one treats that as history, metaphor, or cultural ecology, it reinforces a simple truth: this landscape has never been empty, inert, or forgiving of disruption

About “Clearance” and What It Actually Means

Environmental clearance is not a scientific endorsement; it is an administrative decision informed by scientific inputs.Those inputs typically rely on consultant-led EIA reports and risk models that often assume stability rather than accelerating change. It is reasonable to assume that the project likely employed GIS and probabilistic models (also known as stochastic models, which account for randomness and extreme "black swan" weather events), otherwise no appraisal committee would have proceeded. But assumption is not transparency, and presence is not adequacy. What is striking is not that clearance was granted, but that no peer-reviewed scientific publications have emerged from this process to validate these models against the new reality of the Ghats.

In 2025, this absence is conspicuous

Experts, Authority, and a Shift in Meaning

Expertise today is not about reverence. It is about relevance; A scientist’s credibility is no longer anchored to what they published decades ago, but to how they engage with evolving risk, new data, and open scrutiny. Titles and committees carry administrative weight; methods carry scientific weight. If the science behind the tunnel is robust, it should be able to withstand the scrutiny of local academic excellence. We have seen this before projects like the Kuthiran Tunnel showed that when institutional oversight is rigorous, infrastructure can find its footing. This is not an accusation. It affirms that institutions often lag behind the science they rely upon.

The Path Toward Validity: A Scientific Audit

​If we are to move beyond "procedural comfort," the only honest position is to demand a higher standard of proof. A project of this magnitude, passing through the heart of an ecologically sensitive zone, requires more than a consultant's report.​ Wayanad deserves a comprehensive scientific audit and a live public data dashboard—monitored by independent experts from professional institutions like the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) or KAU.​ These bodies possess the localized knowledge of soil mechanics, biodiversity corridors, and hydrologic patterns that a general EIA might accept. An audit would answer the questions the mountains are already asking.

Why Anger Is a Rational Response

Frustration arises when conversations are prematurely closed: by verdicts, headlines, or simplified narratives. But mountains do not read judgments. Rainfall does not respect clearance letters. Tunnels interact with rock, water, pressure, and time. If the science is robust, it will hold. If it is partial, nature will eventually reveal the gaps. Aknowledging this is not anti‑development. It is pro‑reality.

The Only Honest Position

​The honest position is neither blind opposition nor blind acceptance. It is this: Build—but build with science that can withstand the next fifty years, not just the next file review.​ Wayanad deserves world-class infrastructure. It also deserves scientific truth. That conversation is still open. It must remain so.