ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE & CLIMATE CHANGES IN KERALA

ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE AND CLIMATE CHANGES IN KERALA


Even though the habit of protest against any developmental activity prevalent in Kerala is abhorrent to me, two recent articles in The Hindu of December 23, 2007 (www.thehindu.in) prompted me to write this note.

The wanton ecological destruction seen every where in Kerala is a matter of great concern. Hills are cut out and transported over distances to fill paddy fields for building houses. Ever increasing demand for private houses thus leads to double-destruction of the topology of the land. The frequent traffic jams and innumerable fatal road-accidents created by the incessant flow of trucks laden with earth is another matter of concern. Another consequence of this booming house construction is the creation of sand mafias who plunder river beds for sand mining, thus destroying the rivers in Kerala.

One of the articles in the Hindu, ‘Stubborn assault’ by Akbar Ayub deals with the planned construction of the seventh dam along the Chalakudy River. Kerala Government and the State Electricity Board is planning to construct a 23 meter high dam to produce about 163 MW of electricity at the Athirampilly hydroelectric project. This will add only about 3% to the power production in the state. The water reservoir will submerge about 140 hectares of prime forest land, imperil agricultural operations in nearly 20,000 hectares of land downstream, affect a large number of drinking water schemes, adversely affect the fish diversity of the river which is home for over 104 species of fish, damage two waterfalls downstream and dent tourism in the region. This dam along with the six dams already existing along the river will ring the death knell to Chalakudy River. It must be noted that four of the dams in this river divert water to Tamil Nadu. The on-going Mullaperiyar dam controversy with the state of Tamil Nadu is well known to everybody. All the existing water sharing schemes with Tamil Nadu entered into with the wrong assumption that Kerala has surplus water, are causing severe drinking water scarcity in many parts of Kerala. The major rivers of Kerala, like The Periyar, The Chalakudy and the Bharatapuzha, are getting dried up. Anybody who enters Kerala through Palakkad cannot miss the sad state of dryness in the famous Nila or Bharatapuzha which flows parallel to the railway track for several kilometers.

Now let us look at the consequences of this ecological damage. Scientists have been cautioning the world about the imminent dangers of global warming, melting of the polar ice and consequent rise in sea level leading to flooding of low lying areas of the world. All of these predictions seem to be coming true. Global warming is a well established reality. The second article in the Hindu, ‘Impact of climate change imminent in Kerala’ by R. Ramachandran Pillai describes the climate changes observed in Kerala in recent times. Dry spells during the monsoon season and heavy rain in summer has become quite common in Kerala. In 2007, there were heavy rains during June to September, causing floods. Severe summer draughts were experienced in 1983 and 2004 leading to drying up of wells and rivers, hydrological draught and severe crop losses. A recent study at the Kerala Agricultural University found that the amount of monsoon rainfall has decreased and average temperature increased during the past decade. Mean annual temperature increased by 0.2 to 0.8 degree Celsius between 1961 and 2003. Maximum temperature shot up to 40 degrees, 1 to 3 degrees above normal, at Palakkad in February/March 2004.

The forest cover in Kerala declined from 70 % to 24 % over a period of 150 years, a rate much higher than the national rate. Wetlands or paddy fields are rich water sources during summer and they act as sink during rainy season. Wetlands are decreasing fast in Kerala, from 7.53 lakhs hectares in 1961-62 to 2.76 lakhs hectares in 2005-06. These decreases in forest cover and wetlands are suspected to be the reason behind the frequent floods and draughts now common in Kerala. Ground water is getting depleted faster than that at which it is recharged due to decline in rainfall, over-use of water for irrigation, deforestation, river bed sand mining, decline in wetland area and disappearance of lakes and once ubiquitous ponds. Wells dry up and prolonged silting decreases the water storage capacity of reservoirs.

Whatever climate changes we are witnessing today is only the tip of the iceberg. Unless we take immediate steps to curb ecological destruction, we are in for all the horrible consequences predicted by scientists at a not too distant future.

TKG Namboodhiri
December 26, 2007