River –beds of state going down

The river beds of the state are going down, that too at an alarming rate of over 10cm per year on average, according to the State of Environment Report 2007 published by the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment. The scariest is the case of Periyar, where the river bed is lowering at an alarming rate of 18cm/year. Close on the heels are Pamba, Meenachil and Kadalundi, all going down over 15cm a year.

 

Residents at Aranmula would remember winners of the Uthrattathi vallamkali receiving their trophies from their boats. The level of the water was almost the same height as the pavilion.As years passed by, steps were built down from the pavilion to reach the water.

And while there is a perceptible fall in the river bed of Pamba, there is also a corresponding water-shortage in the river basin during the summer months.

 

"Most wells in the area have turned dry and useless. Some have even been converted to septic tanks," said Pamba Samrakshana Samithy General Secretary Sukumaran Nair.The lowering of river bed causes stagnation and also intrusion of saline water, which changes the fauna and flora of the riverine system.You get to see water-lillies in full bloom in the stagnant Pamba while the fresh water fish does a total disappearing act. And with the fish vanishing, traditional fishermen have turned sand-miners.

 

"The unscrupulous mining of Pamba has changed all the characteristics of the river. They have even started on mining the banks, which eventually gibe away and change the course of the river", said Sukumaran Nair. Periyar also tops in the volume of total annual sand extraction at a whopping 3.47 million metre cube per year. "While the report says there is a minimal natural replenishment, in reality there is none," said All-Kerala River Protection Council General Secretary C.M. Joy.

 

Next to Periyar, the maximum amount of sand loss is experienced by Bharathapuzha, a river that has been throttled by the sand mafia. It is estimated that the total 41 truck loads of sand is being taken to neighbouring states from Bharathapuzha and Periyar river basin alone.With increasing infrastructure development, the annual extraction of sand, on an average, is almost 31 times more than the annual replenishment rate. In the case of Bharathapuzha, 1.426 million metre cube of sand is extracted every year while the annual replenishment is only a meager 0.026 million metre cube.

 

To make matters worse, the government has turned a blind eye to a number of proposals put forward by the State Geology and Mining Department for alternative sources of sand such as the import of sand from the paleochannels in the Thar desert, import of sand from the clay mines of Maharashtra and even the desilting of dams.

 

(The Indian Express 30.06.2007)