No food, no water in lush Kerala

An article that appeared in Business Line which shows the side effects of the development model in the state of Kerala . Thanks G K Nair for the article 

Kerala, glorified as the land of rivers, backwaters and lakes in a narrow strip of land in the southern peninsula, is faced not only with acute shortage of potable water, but is also designated as a ‘Statutory Ration State’ with over 90 per cent need of food grain met by imports.

The reasons for this are indiscriminate and ever increasing human interventions in the rivers, wetlands, lakes and paddy fields. The State has 44 rivers and over 900 tributaries, seven lakes including the Ramser Site Vembanad lake, and yet the government has to reportedly think of ‘rationing of water’.

Indiscriminate sand mining from rivers and reclamation of flood plains, which function as natural reservoirs recharging the underground water table, are pointed out as the reason for this precarious situation. Encroachment of forests and their destruction, coupled with demolition of hills resulting in removal of green cover, have contributed to it.

At the same time, riparian vegetation, an integral environmental component of river ecosystems, is also under threat from unscientific sand mining. This results in the destruction of feeding and breeding grounds of fish, apart from reducing the self-cleaning capacity of river water. Besides, pollution due to domestic and urban sewage and run-off from agricultural fields has led to water quality deterioration, fish mortalities and toxicity in organisms.

Hills and hillocks

If the hills are called Thannir kudangal (water pots), the wetlands are Thannir thadangal (water reservoirs). These two systems are nature’s two important organs and work as unique ecosystems providing habitats for several rare plants and animals of ecological and economic importance.

Demolition of hills and reclamation of wetlands means destruction of our hydrological cycle that sustains life and greenery of the Earth, says D. Padmalal, of Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS), Thiruvananthapuram.

Soil quarrying and levelling of hillocks is not only reducing the net area of the region, but also wasting the soil resource.

Laterite soil from hilltops is usually used to fill the paddy fields. Since the water retention capacity of that soil is poor, the converted fields become harder, which leads to the growth of more amphibious grass and other weeds.

Wetlands ravaged

Wetlands are wet or water covered areas with a water depth of 6m or less and located between land and water bodies having depth greater than 6m, according to scientists. Most of our backwater systems, lakes, rivers, paddy lands, etc., are examples of wetlands. Of the various wetlands in the country, the Vembanad lake, Ashtamudi lake and the Sasthamkotta lake in Kerala were recently declared as Ramsar sites of international importance.

Our paddy lands are wetlands used traditionally for raising paddy. They act as the feeding and breeding grounds for a variety of aquatic organisms. Besides, many don’t bother to understand that groundwater recharging occurs when water moves from the wetland down into the underground aquifer.

Reclamation of paddy fields under the cover of skewed developmental projects — such as airports at Aranmula in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district, Panamaram in Wayanad and Arankkara in Idukki districts and tourism projects in Kuttanad — is being carried out, depriving the people not only of drinking water but also of their staple food, rice.

Studies show that wetland and paddy-cultivated acreage in the State fell by 65 per cent in 30 years. If more than 30 per cent of the cultivated area in the State was under paddy in the middle of 1970s, it shrank to 12 per cent by 2000. The area under the crop has dropped to 213,185 ha in 2010-11 from 8.81 lakh ha was in 1974-75 while the total production fell to around five lakh tonnes from 13.34 lakh tonnes.

The estimated annual requirement, at present, is 40 lakh tonnes with a minimum per capita food availability of 320 g, according to official sources. “At a time when there is an overdependence for food grains/pulses on outside sources, paddy fields are sold out or are being reclaimed for non-agricultural purposes under the facade of 'development'”, Thomas Peeliyanickal, Executive Director, Kuttanad Vikasana Samithy, told Business Line.

Land grab

Even Kuttanad, the granary of Kerala is not spared, he said. The area under paddy in this region has shrunk to around 37,000 hectares from around 55,000 ha. The Kayals are allegedly being reclaimed rapaciously for converting into resorts, townships with golf courses.

The “Rani kayal” (lake) included in the Rs1,860-crore Kuttanad package created by M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in order to bring it back to paddy cultivation, has gone into the hands of a major private group engaged in financial and tourism business. The “Metran Kayal” (lake) covering an area of 517 acres has allegedly been bought by a private company at Rs 15 lakh an acre. It was hitherto being used for cultivation of paddy.

Now this entire area is proposed to be reclaimed for developing into a major township, alleged farmers in Kuttanad. Add to this another 300 acres from the MN Block covering an area of 1,000 acres also said to have been sold. Negotiations are said to be under way for sale of nearby “Maran kayal” at Rs 9 lakh per acre while in the Marthandam kayal around 30 acres have already been left aside for reclamation, they alleged.

According to the Kerala State Land Use Board, a major land use change that has occurred in Kerala is the conversion and reclamation of paddy cultivated areas, both in the lowlands and uplands, to non-agricultural uses, jeopardising the food security of the State, when it is designated as a ‘Statutory Ration State’ with over 90 per cent need of foodgrain met by imports.

Thus, large scale reclamation of lakes in the granary of the state, under the guise of tourism development, is not only depriving Kerala of its paddy fields but also threatening the Vembanad wetland system already included in the National Wetland Conservation Programme. The shrinkage of Vembanad Lake to 37 per cent (13,224 ha) of its original area of 36,329 ha as a result of land reclamation is the most important environmental consequence of various human interventions, experts said.