Context: Recently, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan “launched” a tunnel road project that would connect Kozhikode with Wayanad. 
About Kozhikode-Wayanad tunnel road

• The 7-km tunnel is part of an 8-km road cutting through sensitive forests and hills of the Western Ghats.
• The tunnel is being described as the third-longest in the country.
• Its endpoints are at Maripuzha in Thiruvambady village (Kozhikode) and Kalladi in Meppadi (Wayanad).
• At present, Wayanad plateau is linked to the rest of Kerala via four roads, all with hilly sections, the longest being the 13-km Thamarassery Ghat Road along the Kozhikode-Mysuru NH 766.
• The tunnel road is an outcome of a decades-long campaign for an alternative road as the Thamarassery Ghat Road is congested and gets blocked by landslides during heavy monsoon.

Ecological impact

• The proposed route has identified as a highly sensitive patch comprising evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, marsh lands and shola tracts.
• This region is part of an elephant corridor spread between Wayanad and Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu.
• Two major rivers, Chaliyar and Kabani that flows to Karnataka, originate from these hills in Wayanad.
• Eruvazhanjipuzha, a tributary of Chaliyar and the lifeline of settlements in Malappuram and Kozhikode, begins in the other side of the hills.
• The region, known for torrential rain during monsoon, has witnessed several landslides.

Environmental clearance issues

• Proponents of the project have been stressing that the tunnel will not destroy forest (trees).
• The MoEFCC guidelines state that the Forest Act would apply not only to surface area but the entire underground area beneath the trees.
• For tunnel projects, conditions relating to underground mining would be applicable.
• As the proposed tunnel is 7 km long, it will require emergency exit points and air ventilation wells among other measures, which would impact the forest further.