Loo and behold! for this forest officer, cleanliness is not just a wild concept

KOCHI: P G Sudha broke the conventions when she chose the life of a forest officer. It takes courage to travel 16 km every day through dense forest, braving the odds of tough terrain, wild beasts and poachers. But the 49-year-old, who is working in the Kuttampuzha range, has not scowled even once. Along with surmounting the gender barriers, Sudha recently won the state government’s recognition for contributing in an altogether different field.

She was instrumental in setting up around 497 toilets in nine tribal colonies spread inside the forest as part of the Open Defecation Free (ODF) campaign. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan presented her the award during the Open Defecation Free declaration function on November 1. Nothing comes easy for the inhabitants of
these colonies in Kuttampuzha panchayat in Ernakulam district.

Forest officer P G Sudha

It takes three hours to reach these tribal settlements by foot. Contractors were not ready to take up the task of setting up toilets in these colonies because carrying the building materials through the forest would cause a three-fold jump in construction cost.

“In this context, Ernakulam District Collector K Mohammed Y Safirulla entrusted the task of coordinating the work to Sudha,” said Xavier T X, Kuttampuzha range officer.

Sudha, who had won the Chief Minister’s award for the best forest guard in 2006, took up the challenge and completed 90 per cent of the work in record time.

“It was a Herculean task to complete the work in time as only `15,400 has been set aside for constructing a toilet.
But taking one load of rock, which costs `900 in open market, required for construction inside the forest will cost around `3,000-4,000.

“We had to cross a river en route to the forest and the building materials were ferried to the colonies on a raft and at one point the raft had capsized and the building materials were washed away. But the collector stood with us in adverse conditions and we completed the work with his support and advice,” Sudha, whose husband had passed away 27 years ago, told The Sunday Standard.