India, Aug. 7 -- The arterial Changanassery-Alappuzha Road, known across Kerala simply as the AC Road, has once again exposed how expensive it can be when engineering fails to understand ecology.

The road has returned to the headlines during the current spell of heavy monsoon rains. Long stretches have remained waterlogged while motorists complain of dangerous depressions near bridge approaches where the road has sunk, but the bridges have remained stable.

Residents have repeatedly pointed to blocked drainage openings, poorly functioning culverts and embankments that prevent rainwater from flowing into adjoining paddy fields and canals.

What appears on the surface as a maintenance problem is, in fact, a symptom of a much deeper ecologi...