Waves splashing the feet of a casual visitor at the Triveni Sangamam — confluence of the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean; and picturesque locale with awe inspiring monuments. Adding to these is the serene atmosphere that makes Kanyakumari a tourist’s paradise. At the land’s end of the great, a vast expanse of seemingly unending watery forest greets a casual visitor.
This tiny speck on the globe is a microcosm of the national polity, with all its vagaries and subtleties. In the heartland of regional politics, where the Dravidian outfits have made the national parties insignificant, Kanyakumari stands in stark contrast to its sister districts. Kumari is similar to its 31 sisters in as many ways as it’s different.
Kumari voters have always watched the political drama unfolding at Delhi with keen interest. The political consciousness of the populace is amply demonstrated by the fact that the district remains the sole poll battleground, where the national parties — the Congress and the BJP — have sizeable vote bank.
This broader outlook played a decisive role in sending Pon Radhakrishnan, the then BJP State unit chief, to Centre as a Union Minister after besting Congress’ Vasantha Kumar H in the 2014 General election. Presence of large number of workers from the unorganised sectors, like the workforce from the scores of cashew processing units and rubber plantations, has meant the emergence of CPM as a force to reckon with in the area.
Despite being the smallest district in the State, with only 1,684 square kilometre area, it’s next only to Chennai in urbanisation and population density, closely packing 1,110 people per square kilometre. Another area where the tiny district can boast about is its numero uno position in the literacy rate. With 98 per cent population literate, and a favourable sex ratio standing at 1,014, Kumari indeed has fared well on a host of human development indices.
For a district overly dependent on the number of tourist footfalls for its bread and butter, the infrastructure is sub-par, feels S Rocky, a local resident. “Despite a large number of visitors thronging the district, the true potential of the place has neither been explored, nor exploited,” he adds.
The nearest airport for this tourist hotspot lies in neighbouring Kerala’s capital, Thiruvananthapuram, forcing thousands of visitors, both domestic and foreign, to take the road route. However, an overhaul of the national highway connecting the two spots has been long overdue, feels T Kannan, a photographer-cum-tourist guide.
“The 90-odd kilometre stretch is only two lane, reducing the carriageway. Further, it takes over three hours to cover the distance as more often than not the road is congested,” he adds. A bit of irony here when considering Pon Radhakrishnan went on to become a Union Minister of State of ministries, including road transport.
Favourable climate condition and proximity to Kerala have ensured the mushrooming of rubber plantations across the district. The latex from this region is generally regarded as of good quality.
Ticket to St Fort George
Despite being at the toe-end of the State, or of the nation for that matter, it has been a nerve centre of political activity in Tamil Nadu. Victory from here has ensured the seat of power at Fort St George to the winner unfailingly for the past eight elections since 1980. The lucky streak started with the triumph of AIADMK’s S Muthukrishnan and was intact till 2011 election with the victory of K T Pachaimmal. Another singular characteristic of the constituency is its keen interest in the Central politics. This has gone a long way in ensuring that national parties too have an started with the triumph of AIADMK’s equal stake here
Concrete Jungle in Rice Bowl
For a region so densely populated with very limited land resource at its disposal, realtors have found out a rather myopic solution to the impasse. The rice bowl of erstwhile Travancore state has made way for thousands of plots to meet the housing needs of the expanding town, bring abysmally down the farm. With the sole exception of India Rare Earths Limited, a Central government enterprise mining for rare minerals in Manavalakurichi, the district has scant industries to rely on for job generation. Small scale units running handloom and coir factories provide employment to too few and contribute to the GDP too little.
Birth After Fight for Linguistic Identity
Carved out of the erstwhile Travancore state by piecing together Agasteeswaram, Vilavancode, Kalkulam and Thovalai taluks, Kanyakumari’s birth was the result of brief struggle for linguistic identity by Tamil-speaking people in a predominantly Malayalam-speaking Travancore State. The series of agitations finally yielded results when the State Reorganisation Commission had the four taluks separated from the formerly Trivandrum district and stitched to Tamil Nadu, in the process giving birth to Kanyakumari on November 1, 1956.
Fishermen Wishlist Still Unfulfilled
A long coastline has translated into a flourishing fishing industry, but the folks going out into the sea aren’t a happy lot. Like their cousins in other coastal districts, they too have a long-pending wishlist at the ready.
Years have passed since the demand to set up a helipad in the area was first made. The rationale behind the request was to facilitate easy rescue operation of fishermen, who went missing whenever the sea experienced turmoil.
Another demand that has been unmet for the past few decades is for the establishment of more harbours in the district for ease of fishing operations. The fishermen constitute a sizeable portion of the voting populace, capable of having a bearing on the overall results.