An excerpt from Flood and Fury: Ecological Devastation in the Western Ghats, by Viju B.
As per [Madhav] Gadgil’s Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) report, four out of the five taluks in Idukki – Thodupuzha, Udumbanchola, Devikulam and Peerumedu – were demarcated as ecologically sensitive zones (ESZs). The Kasturirangan committee report, which replaced the Gadgil report, demarcated 123 villages identified as ecologically sensitive areas (ESAs) in Kerala, out of which forty-eight villages were in Idukki district.
The Hill Range Protection Council and the Idukki diocese protested against both these reports – in fact, the high-voltage campaign against ecologist Madhav Gadgil and former ISRO chairman K. Kasturirangan was a key issue in the parliamentary elections in 2014, which targeted them as public enemies for making ‘anti-people’ reports that would destroy the livelihood of Idukki residents. In a pastoral letter issued in November 2013, Mar Mathew Anikkuzhikkattil, Bishop of the Idukki diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, asked farmers and people of the high ranges to deal with political parties. “Kerala will become another Kashmir,” the Bishop of Idukki diocese warned, “in case the report [is] implemented”.
I met Father Sebastian Kochupurackal, director of the Hill Range Development Society, an official organ of the Department of Social Works of the Diocese of Idukki, at his office at Mariyapuram, to see whether he still harbours the same opinion about ecologists like Madhav Gadgil seven months after the floods and landslides that ravaged Idukki. He told me that ecologists do not understand the struggles that the people of Idukki have gone through and see them as mere encroachers of forest lands, when it was the government which encouraged them to migrate to Idukki.
Viju B.
Penguin Random House India, 2019
“Idukki has a migrant history that is only 400 years old; before that, it was just a wild forest. The migration to Idukki began after the Travancore king gifted land for cultivation and the Cardamom Hills were born. Many Christians still have the Chembu Pattom, the royal plaque, given by the king which has the title deed. Early migrants fought wild animals and diseases to survive here. Through their untiring efforts, Idukki became a centre for spices, cultivating the best variety of pepper, coffee and tea in the world,” he says.
When I ask him about the large-scale encroachments and illegal buildings that came up in Idukki, he says there was no encroachment of forest land after 1 January 1977, which was the cut-off date mandated by the Government of Kerala for regularising all encroachments.
“In fact, the problem of ‘pattayam’ or title deeds for the residents of Idukki has not yet been resolved. And because of this, out of the roughly 2700 people who lost land and property in the floods, a majority will not be eligible for compensation. In our estimate, over 50,000 people in Idukki still have to receive title deeds,” Father Sebastian says.
The Hill Range Development Society, which was formed in 2003, has been encouraging sustainable agriculture practices, providing loans to farmers and conducting eco-restoration programmes in Idukki. “I feel we should bring in some building codes and regulations to stop rampant construction in hill-towns like Munnar, which has gone beyond its carrying capacity,” he says.
I ask Father Sebastian why he is against the report, since the society has been conducting activities similar to those mentioned in the WGEEP report. He smiles and says, “In principle, the report sounds good, but you should read the context. I feel they were toeing the lines of international agencies like UNESCO. While we welcome the fact that the Western Ghats has UNESCO recognition, we do not want this tag to be a stone around our necks and stop all development in this region.”
He says the forest department sees Idukki residents as encroachers, whereas they have leased out thousands of acres of forest land for eucalyptus and acacia cultivation. “We are not even allowed to cut a tree in our backyard,” he says.
Father Sebastian agrees that large-scale quarrying should be stopped in Idukki, but there should not be a complete ban as it will increase the price of construction material. As we come out of the society office, he offers papayas from his garden and says, ‘Everything we grow here is organic.’ A few minutes down the road, I hear a loud blast from the opposite side of the hill. ‘It is from the quarry in the neighbouring hills,’ the auto driver tells me. Its vibrations seem to linger in the air for a long time.
Viju B. is metro editor of the Times of India, Kochi. He reports chiefly on issues at the intersection of development, ecology and culture.