Kollam: The Pallikalar in south Kerala is slowly being stifled to death as it has become a waste bin of sorts and a fertile place for hyacinths.The river warrants earliest recovery.
As a south Kerala river that doesn’t originate from the Western Ghats, Pallikkalar travels a good 42 km southward from an otherwise obscure cliff in Pathanamthitta district to Karunagappily in adjoining Kollam district via coastal Alappuzha district. It’s a journey nurtured by 60-odd tributaries, yet when Pallikkalar waters reach their mouth near Kozhikkottu Kayal backwaters, the river is a mere trickle — dirty and ill.
Why?
Well, chiefly owing to human interference in the form of dumping of garbage into the river that emerges from the upper reaches of Koduman and Ezhumkulam in Pathanamthitta district. The river basin drains a 220-sq km area before merging into the Vattakayal in Karunagappally (where it takes the shape of a lagoon) and emptying into the Arabian Sea via T S Canal.
A trip down
The carrier is a country boat owned by the Public Works Department and starting from Chanthakkadavu ferry in Karunagappally. It has wooden planks plastering its base and side to plug cracks. The start of the journey reveals the beauty of the nature around, largely defined by coconut orchards.
In olden days (until last century), both sides of the river had rice and sesame cultivated in a large scale. Several fishermen families earned their livelihood from the river, which was also venue for spinning of coconut husk into coir.
Bygone scenes
Those sights have vanished. The fields have turned into slush lands, courtesy sand mining. Fishing has come down, but coir industry is nonexistent. A cocktail smell redolent of the pungent insecticide DDT and rotten materials hangs in the air heavily. The cabomba aquatica plants have their shoots spread above the water level, readying to subdue when brackish water would invade the waters in December, only to soon revive a month later. It too has a DDT-like stench that, according to villagers, gives the local fish the same unpleasant smell.
Plus, there are the all-pervading water hyacinths. Added greenery comes in the form of mangroves that nature-lovers had planted in recent years. Those shrubs have grown as a guarding wall, but that is clearly insufficient to save the river from its pollutants.
Land invasion
The way people eat into the river’s profile is clear: the width of the Pallikkalar has come down to below 50 metres from what used to be 64 metres in the last century. Worse, the civic corporation itself had, eight years ago, come up with a ‘grand’ plan to construct a stadium by levelling a certain margin of the river. The move triggered public protest, following which a court passed order against the construction (even as private parties continue to break the law).
The Pallikkalar has three bridges, Kannetti, Chambakkadavu and Kallukadavu, which span the garbage heaped below. Both plastic waste and leftovers from the local slaughterhouses are dumped here. Clearly there is a collusion between the abattoirs and civic authorities: no fence exists anywhere to prevent such dumping, chiefly of the chicken waste.
Ferry service
A centuries-old ferry service from Chanthakkadavu to Kollakakkadavu in Panmana panchayat used to ferry merchandise to the Kollam market even till a few decades ago. Today, the PWD runs it only at daytime: 6 am to 6 pm. The residents of Kollaka village use it even today , largely to transport their chief crop cashewnut for sales.
Tourism potential
The Pallikkalar has good potential for tourism promotion as stretches of it have regular boat services and a boat race on a 1,200-metre water track is also held on it annually. The civic authorities had earlier thought of developing a tourism package involving Pallikkalar and Vattakkayal.
A tourist rest house could be built at Chanthakkadavu, which is the starting point for Kannetti Sreenarayana boat race, and an amusement park can come up by the riverside. There was a move to launch speedboats earlier.
For routine water transport, the DTPC runs boats on three routes: Kollam-Kannetti, Kannetti-Vallikavu, Kannetti-Kallukadavu. After dredging, Vattakkayal too could be made suitable for boat rides.
Files on an Onattukara Tourism Project comprising these ideas are gathering dust.
Local plea
A Pallikkalar Restoration Council calls for strict action against those polluting the river. Its president B Dineshlal wants authorities to penalise and stop those throwing human and hotel waste into Pallikkalar. Council secretary Munju Kuttan said youngsters should take up the cleaning of the river as a challenge.
Local resident K G Sivaprasad, a schoolteacher who has won a national award, said the emphasis should be on eliminating the water hyacinth forever from the river.
