Onam links to the environment and economics

 Onam, the harvest festival of Kerala, has strong linkages to the environment and the economy of this coastal state. MORE ... 

In Kerala there was nothing "golden" about this missed opportunity

After extreme weather events there is a need for truth and reconciliation. The chaos in the state of Kerala after the Sabarimala judgement prevented introspection into the August 2018 floods. However, the election results did not go as the BJP would have wanted. MORE ... 

Editor's pick: Stories that made impact in 2018

Our stories did not move mountains. That was not our aim. We are happier if mountains are not moved, and the forests and wildlife on them remain. For this to happen the local communities also need to have equitable access to natural resources. MORE ... 

[Interview] Kerala agriculture minister: Organic and natural farming will give farmers self reliance and climate resilience

In mid-August 2018 there was a massive flood in Kerala. Two years ago, the state went through a drought. In an interview to Mongabay-India, Kerala Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar said that the state will move to organic and natural farming to strengthen farmers' self reliance and climate resilience. MORE ... 

A farmer returns home from his fields. 

Kerala floods: Time for introspection and amends as the water recedes

In middle of August 2018, Kerala had a once-in-a-century floods. The sorrow and suffering will be wasted if there isn't improved environmental understanding. MORE ... 

The cascade of dams in the Chalakudy, Periyar and Pampa river valleys.

Kole Birders: Learning habitat conservation from the birds

They have different day jobs, but they have one passion in common. They love to watch and photograph birds. Starting from this hobby, this group of citizen scientists have contributed some of the best bird surveys in the country. MORE ...

Birdwatchers in the midst of the kole fields. Photo by Kole Birders. 

Nipah infection in Kerala: Don't blame the bats alone

It is easy to blame the bats without introspecting on public health. MORE ... 

The coasts need science-based policy action

The coasts came into nation's consciousness after the economic reforms were initiated in 1991. Similarly, it is only now that research is understanding the complexities of coastal and marine biodiversity. By diluting conservation rules for the coast, the government is letting this ecosystem be tampered with even before it is understood. MORE ...

Fishing boats anchored off Mumbai coast.

Silent Valley: A controversy that focused global attention on a rainforest 40 years ago

In the late 1970s, when the Kerala Government proposed a 120 MW hydro-electric project that would have drowned substantial parts of the Silent Valley rainforests, it did not expect a systematic science-based opposition from a citizen's group, which was picked up nationally and internationally. The final refusal came from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and river Kunthi continues to flow even during worst summers. MORE ... 

Much of these rich rainforests would have been submerged under the reservoir.

In a drought hit country, sacred groves are crucial for climate resilience

Facing the yin and yang of drought and flood years, sacred groves in the country can provide climate resilience. MORE ...

Even during the peak of summer in 2017, this stream inside a sacred grove in Kerala had water flowing in it.

Sacred groves of Kerala: Backed by divinity, but not legality

Sacred groves in Kerala are facing multiple pressures. But there is also a ray of hope. MORE ...

Theyyam at Neeliyarkottam.

Kole farmers of Kerala reel under unprecedented drought

The Kole farmers of Kerala are facing a double whammy. The drought means less freshwater is coming into the wetlands from the rivers. Also, more saline water is getting into the agricultural fields from the tail end estuaries. MORE ...

The Kole farmers of Kerala have been hit with a double whammy.

The city that the Powerful King built

As I stood atop the six-storeyed apartment building in which my mother had bought a flat, it was easy to see the wisdom of Rama Varma Kunjhipilla Thampuran (1751-1805). This King of the Cochin State, more popularly known as Shaktan Thampuran or the Powerful King, had moved his capital from Kochi to Thrissur. His wisdom in moving his palace from the coast to a location in the midlands of Kerala was strategic – reducing his exposure to raids from the sea by the colonial adventurers of the days. Thrissur, however, may not have grown into a city today had Shaktan Thampuran not made this move.

From the top of the multi-storeyed building, I was seeing Thrissur from a height for the first time. The canopy of the coconut palm crowns below the terrace did not hinder the view up to the Kuthiran hills, as they stretched back into the Nelliampathies and the Anamalai mountain block. Towards the foreground, the Kuthiran hills wrapped around the northeastern fringes of the city and lost their height towards Wadakancherry. In the west, the sole Vilangan hill stood like a sentinel. Historically, it has been used as a watchtower, for its line of sight up to the Chettuva estuary leading into the Arabian Sea.

In the western fringe, I could see the blue-green band of the Kole wetlands and paddy fields. Fed by rivers from the Western Ghats, this large patch of wetland in Thrissur district, is an interface between fresh and estuarine waters as they meet with the sea. In addition to paddy cultivation, the Kole wetlands support multiple livelihood options for those living around it.

Though I had grown in Thrissur (and those days Thrissur was still a town and had not been upgraded to a city), my view of the city was always from the ground. I had grown in a single-storey cottage and we could not see anything higher than the leaves of the coconut tree. It was decades later, after my father’s death, my mother moved into a smaller house in a taller building.

If my father was alive today he would be surprised hearing about drought and water shortage in Thrissur. During the lifetime of my father, and his father before him, in the city that the Powerful King built, water scarcity would have been the last of all concerns. With perennial rivers flowing by and innumerable water bodies and wetlands in an around the city, the wells may never have dried. If that was not enough, there was copious supply flowing through the pipes from the Peechi dam reservoir near the Kuthiran hills.

The irrigation cum drinking water supply Peechi project was among the earliest projects inaugurated after the Kerala state was formed in 1956. It symbolised the aspirations and dreams of the young state. In 1976, when my father bought the house and compound in Punkunnam, which became our home for decades, we had enough water in our laterite-lined well. As a backup we had water supply from Peechi reservoir. 

The situation is different today. Wells are running dry. Peechi water supply does not reach many in the city. Even if it is does, it is not of good quality. Borewells – unheard of in Thrissur during my growing years – are going deeper. The situation may worsen by summer, which in Kerala is from March to May. The Kerala Government already declared the state as drought affected in October. The southwest and the northeast monsoons were deficit by 39%, and even  after adding the smattering of winter and pre-monsoon rains Kerala received only 1869 mm, the lowest rainfall since 1951.

Annual rainfall in Kerala from 1951 to 2016 (Source: IMD)

But is it merely the drop in rainfall that is causing the problem? A look at Kerala’s historical rainfall data from 1951 (see graph) shows that there have been years with low rainfall, though not as low as 2016. Even 1800 mm is higher than what most parts of the country receive. For a state with 44 rivers, breaking into estuaries in the coast, there should have been some water in the reserve. Reducing forest cover, changing land use, decreasing ecological health of rivers, land filling of estuaries, increasing urbanisation and conversion of paddy fields, all ensure that the water that falls flows into the sea quickly, thus reducing the water availability in all parts of the state. This trend has been worse by the increased disregard for the environment in the recent years, and thus the impact of reduced rainfall in 2016 is likely to be felt drastically in the summer of 2017.

Interestingly, Thrissur district had the second-highest rainfall deficit during the southwest monsoon, the main rain bearer for the state. For Thrissur city this is being compounded by the fact that its needs have risen. Recently, I was surprised to see the name of Thrissur on top of a list of urban agglomerations that recorded highest population growth between 2001 and 2011. Ulka Kelkar, fellow at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) in Bengaluru, had compiled this data from the census data of 2001 and 2011. Even though partially this can be explained by the fact that Thrissur got upgraded from a municipality to a corporation in October 2000 and therefore adding adjoining local bodies to the urban agglomeration, there is no escaping from the fact that Thrissur’s population has grown dramatically in the past decade and half.

The population of Thrissur urban agglomeration has grown dramatically between 2001 and 2011
(Source: Ulka Kelkar, ATREE, from Census data).

The rapid growth in population in the Thrissur urban agglomeration has been at the cost of its natural water sinks. When my father bought the house in Punkunnam, there were large paddy fields not very far from our house. Over the years, these fields were recovered acre by acre and turned into housing plots. The huge filtration bed disappeared in less than a few decades.

Similarly, the covered surface increased with most of the houses paving most of their homesteads. Rainwater flows out quickly from the city. If some of this running water could be made to walk, then irrespective of the drought the inadequacy of water availability could have been dealt with. 

Drought in Kerala is counter-intuitive news for the rest of the country. For the state promoted as “God’s own country” with images of backwaters and monsoon tourism, the idea of drying wells and dysfunctional taps do not fit in with the larger picture. The Powerful King who built the city, could not have thought an answer for this one.

Kerala fights drought with recharged wells

In October, Kerala's Government declared the state as drought affected. For a state that receives the first onslaught of the southwest monsoon, the year 2016 has been bad. While the southwest monsson was deficient by 34%, the northeast was deficient by 62%. The state has only received 1,532.5 mm of rain till December 14, whereas the average annual rainfall is 2,508 mm, which could man a deficit of 39% during 2016. The State Government has decided to upscale the Mazhapolima (rain bounty) scheme of well recharge found successful in Thrissur district to all parts of the state. MORE ...

Jos Raphael of Mazhapolima (right) talks to the officials of a public health centre. 

P.P. George and Theresa George near their well with recharge system in Arimbur village.

W(h)ither Kerala's mangroves

With mangroves in Kerala reducing to 25 sq.km from 700 sq.km in 1957, the efforts by a group of citizens to get remaining patches surveyed and government lands identified holds promise. More than half of the state’s mangrove patches stand on privately owned lands, and thereby conservation is difficult. While the private owners do not have an immediate economic benefit from conservation, the government finds it difficult to deal with private lands. However, even after the citizen’s group has helped government identify mangroves on their lands, the state machinery has not moved towards conservation. MORE … 

The mangrove-encrusted island in the Chettuva river.

Walls can't keep out the sea in Kerala

More than half of Kerala's coastline is built with sea walls. However, this does not necessarily protect the state from storm surges and climate change. MORE ... 

The sea wall in Chettuva in central Kerala.

Keeping the woods lovely, dark and deep

The National Biodiversity Targets are an effective instrument for mainstreaming the concerns of biodiversity conservation into national policy and action. It can also help strengthen the economic wellbeing of the communities living in and around forests. MORE …

It is not just the Thrissur Pooram ...

During the Second World War my father travelled from Thrissur (then Trichur) to Mumbai (then Bombay) to buy silk. It was not for any wedding in the family, but for stitching the colourful parasols for Parmekkavu temple for the Thrissur Pooram. With the War continuing for years, commodities were rationed – including silk – and it required special permission and had to be obtained from Mumbai. My father, a young man then, volunteered for this difficult and adventurous assignment.

My father was a full-fledged Pooram aficionado. In Malayalam we call this Poora-kambam. Born in 1917, the year when the First World War ended in Europe, the agrarian economy and the Independence movement were the backdrop for his early decades. Till the time his health permitted, he participated in the Pooram, unmindful of the summer sun and the crushing crowds.

A file picture of Thrissur Pooram 2015 from www.thrissurpooramfestival.com

He obviously was/is not alone; there are hundreds of thousands like him. Poet and lyricist P. Bhaskaran had made the Thrissur Pooram immortal in his ever-popular song Mambazha koottathil … with the words “Poorangalil veccha Thrissur Pooram …” The girl to whom this serenade is directed is addressed as the Thrissur Pooram among poorams.

Many were shocked with the news that the Pooram could be curtailed this year. “What is Thrissur without Pooram?” asked Archbishop Mar Andrews Thazhathu of the Catholic Church.

Coming almost immediately after the fireworks accident at the Puttingal temple in Kollam, the Thrissur Pooram was to take the brunt of the restrictions. It came into the cross hairs because of two orders passed immediately after the Kollam tragedy – by the forest department restricting the parading of elephants under the hot summer sun, and by the Kerala High Court restricting fireworks display at night.

Through tripartite discussions between the Pooram organisers, the State Government and the High Court, a plan to have the Pooram with controls has been worked out.

The Thrissur Pooram is the biggest and the most visible of the religious-cultural celebrations in Kerala. Thus it also draws the strongest views – from those who want to have the Pooram unrestricted, and others who want the elephant parade and fireworks curtailed. And since it has been a prominent icon in the Kerala Government’s tourism promotion under the tagline ‘God’s own country’ anything to do with the Pooram invites national and international attention.

In 2015, Hollywood actress Pamela Anderson wanted live elephants to be replaced with dummies. She offered to pay for this transition, which was refused by the Kerala Government.

But is the Thrissur Pooram the only issue that needs to be discussed and debated? Or should it be the larger picture of celebrations in Kerala?

Today, as the Pooram gathers steam in Thrissur, I remember the time when my father retired from government service in 1975 and returned to Thrissur and bought our house in Punkunnam. The Vishnu temple had just been bought from a private owner and taken over by a public committee. Behind the temple stood acres of wide-open paddy fields. The temple festival was celebrated when the fields were dry, and the fireworks were lit away from habitation. 

In the 40 years since the early days of public celebrations for the deity, the paddy fields have been parcelled and sold off into colonies in this prime real estate location in Thrissur. With many middle class families moving into the area and also remittance donations from outside the country, the temple has become richer than those early days. Even as the space for the celebrations shrunk, the ambition of the temple committee expanded. One elephant became three, and the intent to make the celebrations bigger, brighter and louder than that of the other temples became stronger.

This has not been the story of the temple near my house alone. It has not even been the story of only temples. The believers of all gods, all religions have wanted their celebrations to be the best and the boldest.

If you take the road in Kerala, you can be surprised by some celebration marching through the highway or the smaller roads and blocking the passage for hours. It could be a political party, a religious or casteist organisation, or a religious institution that is taking its celebrations on to the roads. Or, as in the recent years, it could be a jewellery chain store celebrating the opening of its 151^st showroom, with caparisoned elephants, panchavadyam and pushing crowds.

Celebrations require money, and the source from which this money comes has changed over the centuries and decades. In a feudal-agrarian society, temple festivals were funded through a combination of royal or feudal patronage, returns from the fields owned by the temple and contribution from those living nearby (this would have been more as grain rather than cash).

The Thrissur Pooram could rise to pre-eminence because it was supported by the King of Kochi himself, who at that time in the 1790s was Rama Varma IX also known as the Shaktan Thampuran or the strong king. The people of Thrissur continued this support and the festival never faded.

Today, the funding for the innumerous celebrations in Kerala is crowd-sourced. It is buttressed by hyperventilating the cause of the local pride and/or a focussed identity. If people at X could spend so much for their celebrations, why shouldn’t we?

Whatever be the occasion, the attitude of the organisers is the same: “We are celebrating, and your convenience and safety is least of our concerns.” Once this attitude gets internalised as a subtext for all celebrations, then taking a newer and bolder step is just an extension of the same argument. Thus, the organisers at Puttingal persisted with the fireworks even after there were protests from neighbours, disapproval from the district administration, and even after small incidents in the early stages of the fireworks indicated that there is possibility for a disaster.

When you play with fire, the line between glory and disaster is a fine one. It is as fine as the line between cautious confidence and bravado. And when you train a wild elephant to stand still for hours, and you fatigue him with multiple parades, there could be times when his instinct takes over and he hits back.

In my father’s time there were lesser number of celebrations and thus being aware of this fine line was easier. There are far more celebrations today as my son’s generation takes charge. It is easy for the critics to pick on the Thrissur Pooram because it is an icon among celebrations. If we change our attitude towards celebratory excesses during the year and take abundant caution, the Pooram will be safe and enjoyable.

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