KOCHI: One of the ways to lead a richer life is to get up every morning and to examine the world, as well as one’s place in it, from first principles: To look afresh at the world that we inhabit, as well as the goals and directions of one’s own existence.
If any Keralite above the age of fifty undertakes this exercise, and looks with fresh eyes at the environment that he inhabits in this State of Kerala, he will not fail to be struck by the degradation that has taken place over his lifetime. The older generation of Kerala will remember a locale that was one of the most fabulous ecological settings in the world: With flowing streams at every turn, brimming rivers, unspoilt lakes, wet paddy fields and lush green groves.
Unfortunately, Kerala has been ravaged over the course of a lifetime: By the compulsions of development, by population pressures, and by simple greed. If one takes a flight on a clear day from Kochi to Trivandrum, one of the most prominent sights below is the quarries that dot the State-whole hilltops scarred and ravaged. Illegal collection of river sand is now a widespread cottage industry, with entire communities turning law-breakers. Wetlands are being illegally filled up right under our noses.
Cultivated fields of paddy and flowing streams are becoming an exotic sight. Hillsides are being cut down for mining earth, and toxic garbage is being spread across the landscape. The gently rolling countryside is being flattened; with unsustainably-designed hideous sprawling villas blighting the landscape.
Most of the other Indian States have terrain that are unvarying across great distance, with large swathes of level land. What makes the Kerala landscape so special and beautiful is its undulation and variety over even small distances, its miniature watersheds, and the luxuriance of its vegetation: A menu of diverse landscapes from the cool hills to the tropical beaches across the span of a short car-ride.
This is a State that calls out for watershed-based, micro-level spatial planning and development controls, to regulate and attenuate rapacious and greedy land-use. One has to just look at the town of Munnar, where multi-storeyed hotel buildings are being erected on its fragile hill-slopes, to know that strong regulatory controls are needed to check the ravaging of the hill landscape.
Some of these buildings are so precariously perched, that it is only a matter of time before one gets washed away in a monsoon landslide. No deep research is needed to conclude that many of these buildings have flouted even the basic regulations that currently prevail.
Another Malayali trait that is denuding the State is the our penchant for monster houses, since the sprawling villa with a jail-sized compound wall is de-rigueur for announcing worldly success and social standing to the world, never mind the fact that such abodes are not easy to inhabit or keep clean. This also leads to the rise of me-too behaviour, with neighbour trying to match neighbour.
Kerala is crying out for the introduction of punitive taxation on such mega-buildings, since they are one of the principal ravagers of the environment; with their king-sized requirements of earth, stone, and river-sand. Kerala also needs a water-based approach to regulatory planning and development, with the accent on protecting and reviving our streams, lakes and rivers; with the involvement of local communities. It is a widely accepted truth in environmental circles that if you protect the waters, the rest of the landscape will heal itself.
The new Government that is set to come in post elections, whatever its hue, thus has its task cut out: To repair and revive Kerala’s priceless and unique landscape, so that our children can have the quality of life that their ancestors had; and also so that Kerala can find its rightful place as one of the leading tourism destinations on the planet.
—Elias George MD, Kochi Metro Rail Limited, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Kerala