Malappuram: It was a flourishing flow-back from the brink of death for the Kundukadavu-Kanjiramukku river which courses through Maranchery panchayat of Kerala's Malappuram district.
The panchayat, which had earned the monicker of 'cancer panchayat a decade ago,' revived the river and its environs as part of its multi-pronged strategy to emphatically change its way of living and image.
The river faced the threat of wanton waste dumping and the erosion of banks. Officials said the private ownership of properties fringing the river made any conservation efforts difficult.
“The 7-km-long bank of the Kundukadavu river was stinking and we needed the cooperation of land owners to rejuvenate it. Initially, when we decided to plant mangrove saplings in the area. People protested fearing that their land will turn into a protected area. We had to tell them that mangroves are not planted on the banks, but in the river,” Maranchery panchayat president E. Sindhu said.
The mangroves, planted in 2016, enhanced bio-diversity and prevented bank erosion. The panchayat then set out to plant bamboo on the banks, an idea put forth by the Social Forestry wing of the Forest department. The first set of 2,500 bamboo saplings were planted in 2016 as high oxygen-release plants were given priority, Sindhu said.
When the land-owners were convinced that they could cut and use the bamboo plants commercially, they gave consent to grow them in large numbers. In 2017, another 2,500 saplings were planted. The saplings were bought from the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies.
Realizing the need to preserve ponds for ground water conservation, the panchayat dug 150 ponds, employing MGNREGS workers, an all-woman team. In the past two years, the panchayat could manage effectively manage drought in usually affected places like 'Thuruvanam' dweep (island).
The panchayat president said the residents were raising requests to dig more ponds and the local body was short of manpower. Panchayat sources said ponds could be created on 1.5 to 2 cents of land. Those with more land were using excavators to create ponds.
The Bio-diversity Management Committee (BMC) in Maranchery has included the preservation of Kaavu (sacred groves) in the current project plan. They could identify nearly 40 Kaavus in the panchayat alone. Some are being preserved by the households concerned. The abandoned Kaavus would be managed by the local body.
Read more: World Environment Day