The first thing striking about the Kodoor river in south-central Kerala is the chocolate-brown colour of its water. On one side, there are automobile shops and a fish and vegetable market. As you paddle further down, it stinks. “They throw the waste into the water,” says Praveen George Ittycheria, president of the Voice of Nature group in Kottayam. “Chicken sellers come in the middle of night, and throw the remains into the river. We’ve alerted the municipal authorities.”
Recently, the group cleaned one section beside the river filled with garbage: construction material, bricks, slippers, plastic bottles.... In its place, they’ve planted grass and grass. “But garbage-throwing continues,” he says.
So one night, they kept vigil. Suddenly, a ‘Drinking Water’ lorry drew up. The driver went to the back, and aimed a pipe into the water. It turned out to be human excreta. The members of the Voice of Nature chased the driver in their car. He was apprehended. Says Mary Roy, principal of Pallikoodam School: “Heavy fines should be imposed for dumping garbage into the river.”
Praveen says the Kodoor, 20 km long and 80 feet wide, is facing a constant degradation. At the boat chugs along, and goes further away from the town, the waters begin to get clearer. Then there is a stretch where the boat has to move along one side of the river, because two bogies of a goods train lie buried in the middle after they fell off the railway bridge in a mishap—over 15 years ago.
About half a kilometre from Puthupally town, there was a huge mound of garbage—again, in the middle of the river. Fishermen had put up nets to trap fish, but waste also got stuck. Over the years, this had become an obstruction. “With the help of a local group, the Ericadu Club, we got rid of a lot of garbage and managed a passageway,” says Praveen.
A dentist, Praveen has a close links with the river. “I grew up beside it,” he says. “In my childhood, the waters were crystal clear. We’d swim often in it and have so much fun.”
The Voice of Nature consists of dentists, engineers, doctors, politicians, religious leaders and social workers. Says the group’s vice president Aleyamma Cheriyan: “We are a group of middle-class people who want to stop the degradation of the environment.”