KOCHI: It is often the simplest person in the crowd who shines the brightest. For the past 25 years, the P V Thampy Memorial Endowment Award for Environment Protection has been identifying ordinary people who do extraordinary work for the environment and honouring them. The award, in its Silver Jubilee year, will be awarded to C C Kannan, from East Maradi near Muvattupuzha.
Kannan has played a vital role in turning his hometown into a greener place. “He has been doing this for the past 25 years,” says Ranjit Thampy, environmental activist and son of P V Thampy. Kannan spearheaded several tree planting campaigns, including one for anganwadi children and also for MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) workers.
The award consists of a cash prize of Rs 50,000 and a memento. According to C J John, secretary of the Environment Monitoring Forum, which has instituted the award, it is aimed at inspiring everyone to contribute to the environment. “If an ordinary person can do such things, why not you? However, the attitude of people towards protection of the environment in the state has still not changed greatly,” he says.
The first P V Thampy Memorial award was given to T N N Bhattathiripad in 1998. A native of Kunnamkulam, Bhattathiripad, who passed away in 2016, was a former Kerala Water Authority chief engineer. He was also called the ‘Lord of Check Dams’, as he vehemently argued that check dams and sub-surface dams were the only solutions for replenishing the groundwater table.
Bhattathiripad continued his crusade for water conservation and conducted water-literacy campaigns among students until he was bedridden. Among the later awardees is a group of people from Kolavipalam, a coastal village in Kozhikode, who worked together as a community called Theeram Prakriti Samrakshana Samithy to save the endangered Olive Ridley turtles and also fought against sand mining.
The community’s efforts paid off and later on evolved into an initiative for protecting the entire area. They were awarded for their efforts in 2000. Another group called Neythal Kadalama Samrakshana Sanghatana, engaged in protecting the endangered sea turtles in Kasaragod, was awarded in 2004.
Five mangrove warriors, who not only planted, but also nurtured trees were honoured in 2001, 2007, 2008 and 2021. Kallen Pokkudan from Kannur, Mariamma Kurian from Kumarakom, a fisherman Parayil Rajan and K S Sanoj from Kannur and Murukesan from Vypeen in Ernakulam have been actively involved in mangrove conservation, preservation and propagation.
Cheruvayil Raman from Wayanad is also a recipient of the award. He has been preserving 33 varieties of rice that are facing the danger of extinction. Raman, a farmer belonging to the Kurichya tribe, has been cultivating them in his five-acre paddy field.
His initiatives to preserve the seeds emerge as an innovative model in agriculture and environment protection. He was the 15th recipient of the award since its establishment. In 2018, the award went to Palakkal Khader, a native of Kuttikkadavu village in Mavoor in Kozhikode for collecting plastic waste from the Cherupuzha river. Khader has been picking out the trash from the river for more than a decade. He sets out every morning in his boat and while fishing, he picks up floating debris.
While Khader gives the plastic waste he collects for recycling, K K Manoharan from Kottayam, another recipient of the award, turns household trash into new products. He recycles discarded plastic strips and other such materials to make flower pots, mats, baskets and other decorative household items, which he sells for a meagre price. The award function will be held today at YMCA at 5 pm. Former chief secretary K Jayakumar will present the award to Kannan, Opposition leader V D Satheesan will preside over while Justice C N Ramachandran Nair will deliver the P V Thampy Memorial speech.
The first P V Thampy Memorial award was given to T N N Bhattathiripad in 1998. He was a former Kerala Water Authority chief engineer, and called the ‘Lord of Check Dams’