Walled off from the wetlands

Kerala is often described as God’s Own Country, but Asha Menon finds unholy forces are threatening the existence of its rivers and backwaters — all in the name of development

f ive years ago, Celestine camped for over two weeks in Delhi with two close friends to get a road approved. “Our island (Moolampally in Kerala’s Ernakulam district) doesn’t exist for those on the mainland,” says Celestine, an ex-panchayat member. “The road was to make us visible”, a witness to progress.
They have the road now, but it’s brought no joy It has ripped the heart out of the island, . inundated paddy fields and brought down many houses including Celestine’s.

Environmentalists fear this road and other markers of progress like it will kill Kerala’s storied backwaters, which run along the cluster of islands and sustain the islanders’ many farms. Usually a road is a sign that things are getting better, but here it’s an indicator that they could get much worse in a few years.

The first thing that happens is that land is acquired. In Kerala, it’s usually paddy fields and wetlands, among the most productive and biodiverse environments. The acquired area is then filled in, and the road built on top.

Celestine’s four-lane road from Vallarpadom island, which is part of an international container terminal, cuts the wetlands off from the backwaters. As a result, the fields get waterlogged because there’s no drainage, and farm ing becomes unviable. Then the helpless farmers have little choice but to part with their lands to real estate developers who build dream homes and resorts for those who can afford it, and in the process chip away further at the ecosystem. Eventually the wetlands will disappear, says environmentalist Moosakutty who , is part of Green Earth.

Moosakutty’s fears are not baseless. Recently , a large stretch of wetland adjacent to the road was being filled up on the sly at night. The agricultural officer in Moolampally had to intervene to stop it. The filling would have gone unnoticed, except that the islanders still depend on the farms for their livelihood and the encroachment affected the flow of water into their fields. But once every farm is sold to developers, there is little incentive to be on guard. And once every farm is built upon, there’s no wetland left.

It’s a gradual, creeping destruction, bit by bit, death by a thousand cuts, almost impossible to stop unless everyone is preternaturally vigilant. In the end, you have a series of stagnant, stinking runnels that are of no use to anyone.

If the wetlands are lost, why should we worry? First, the river loses a natural sieve. For example, riverbank trees like cheru and plants like kaitha filter the dirt from the flowing water. Secondly, wetlands hold excess water, like a sponge. They release this water into the rivers in the dry season. If they’re lost, river flows decline drastically And in the rainy season, the . wetlands hold the excess water and prevent flooding. It’s an intricate natural system evolved over millennia, preserving the balance between land and water.

Walled off from the wetlands, rivers shrink to little more than a canal. The paddy fields too act as flood plains that take some of the floodwater in the wet season, and in return are fertilised by river silt. With slower currents, there’s better sedimentation. Most important of all, marine life continues to flourish, providing a diversity of fish and other food to harvest. When the wetlands are gone, all this automatically goes too.

Along with the real estate boom, tourism is an allied danger in other parts of Kerala. In Kumarakom for example, vast areas of paddy fields and the wetlands of the Vembanad Lake (India’a longest lake fed by rivers such as Achenkoil, Pampa, Meenachil, Manimala, Muvattupuzha and Periyar) are being bought by high-end resort builders.

But the farmers who lost their lands and livelihoods are not complaining. They feel they’ve hit a lottery Part of the problem is that . farming is no longer viable as the farmers were struggling under the burden of large loans. So when resort owners offered a few lakhs, nobody resisted. Now the main harvest in many places is the tourists who flock to them.

When paddy fields are lost to development, it’s not only the wetlands that go. The streams and canals that flow through them and enrich the rivers too are plugged. Often they go without a whimper, but recently a canal in Kalamassery off Kochi demanded attention. It bled red.

When dead karimeen floated to its surface, the matter was brought to the attention of the Pollution Control Board. “Somebody had filled up the paddy fields with the permission of the government and along the way, accidentally, filled up the canal that runs through it,” says M S Mythili, who investigated the incident at the Board. Someone at the municipality protested and the real estate developers were asked to “reinstate” the canal. They dumped red sand along its sides, and “accidentally” spilt it into the canal. The slurry that formed from this spill resulted in the dead fish.

Besides wetlands destruction, Kerala’s waterways have to deal with river basin reclamation. According to C K Sujith Kumar, who is doing research on the river systems in Kerala for the Blue Yonder, all the major rivers — Pampa, Periyar, Bharatapuzha, Chalakuddy and Thodupuzha are affected by reclamation, mostly thanks to soaring land prices.

At Thodupuzha, John Peruvanthanam of Paristhithi Samrakshana Samithi recalls a most dramatic encroachment. One day stones , were lowered into the river to mark the boundary of a business establishment. When environmentalists protested, the Revenue Department placed a restraining order on the business house and referred the problem to the municipality The owner approached a tribunal, which . ruled in his favour. Though John sounds bitter about the outcome, he is glad no more encroachments have taken place after their protests.

While Sujith says wetland destruction and river basin encroachment are significant threats to the rivers, he places them at the end of a cycle. It begins with catchment area destruction, then river-bed destruction due to sand mining, then wetland destruction and finally river basin encroachment. If this cycle continues without check, he says, that all the state’s rivers will turn into seasonal rivers.

Joseph Karoor of the River Protection Council sees the future and it’s bleak. “Ten years down the line there will be no rivers in Kerala. Only 44 sewage lines.”

The New Indian Express Sunday Magazine Dec 21 2008