The protest launched by Vayal Kilikal, a farmers’ collective in Keezhattoor—a CPM-dominated village in Kannur—is now an isolated voice of dissent. It also marks the struggle of a village to save its remaining green cover. The ruling CPM, which mobilised the farmers in Maharashtra, is going all out to crush the agitation at home with an iron fist. While the protesters threatened to immolate themselves, the CPM workers set ablaze the thatched shed put up by the protesters on the paddy fields.
It was on January 9 that the Kerala Paddy Land and Wetland Conservation Act, 2008, was amended, bringing stringent provisions for conservation of paddy fields and to ensure the paddy fields are used only for agricultural purposes. Green activists say a hectare of wetland can hold 10 lakh litres of water and the protection of these wetlands is crucial in conserving the ecosystem. There are around 217 wetland areas in Kerala and they account for about 20 per cent of the total land area. It is estimated that around 30 per cent of the wetlands and paddy fields in Kerala have been destroyed over the past three decades. This has led to climatic changes and the state’s average temperature has shot up from 34 degree Celsius to 36 degree Celsius. The state’s water table has gone down by around four metres in recent years.
Sure, the government needs to acquire 250 acres of paddy fields and wetlands for completing the National
Highway bypass project. At the same time, it cannot wish away the recently amended Land and Wetland Conservation Act. And that was perhaps the trigger for the latest salvo fired on the floor of the state Assembly on Tuesday by PWD Minister G Sudhakaran who lampooned the Vayal Kilikal banner used by protesters, saying they were more vultures than harmless birds. The question that begs an answer is if it will take a Maharashtra-like agitation in Kerala to make harmless swallows, swifts and martins to take flight as vultures.