Declare Pampa a biological hot spot’

The Pampa Parirakshana Samithy, a Kozhencherry-based eco-group campaigning for the conservation of River Pampa, has asked the government to declare Pampa 'a boiologcal hot spot' and evolve a long-term plan for the conservation of the flora and fauna in the river basin.The PPS recently conducted a resource information study on the Pampa in association with the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment. The study found destruction of the feeding and breeding grounds of fishes and lowering of the riverbed at an alarming rate mainly due to indiscriminate sand-quarrying over the past two decades. Pollution due to domestic and urban sewage as well as run-off from agriculture fields had led to severe water quality deterioration and destruction of fish habitats, it found.

The report submitted to the government by PPS general secretary N.K. Sukumaran Nair stressed the need to implement the much sought-after Centrally sponsored Pampa Action Plan without delay. The PAP, estimated at Rs. 320 crore, was supposed to be implemented in three phases for pollution control from Pampa in the foothills of Sabarimala in Pathanamthitta district to Thakazhi in Kuttanad in Alappuzha district.The 176-km long river Pampa, regarded as the lifeline of Central Travancore, is the third longest river system in the State that flows through the densely populated areas of Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha districts.Deforestation in the catchment areas, unscientific sand-mining, pollution during the Sabarimala pilgrim season and waste from hospitals, slaughter houses, chicken corners, rubber factories, markets, etc., and illegal fishing methods like use of poison, dynamites, etc., have been identified as the major causes of the degradation of the river system.According to Mr. Sukumaran Nair, indiscriminate sand-mining has hastened the death of the river system. The riverbed has been lowered by four to five metres during 1984 to 2004 and it has gone down even three metres below mean sea level at Edayaranmula, leading to salinity intrusion.

The hydraulic gradient increases alarmingly when the river sand, which acts as a natural check dam, is removed, badly affecting the ground water recharging capacity even in the river basin, says Mr. Nair.Drinking water scarcity is severe in Pampa river basin due to the lowered riverbed and unscientific sand quarrying. Salinity intrusion was reported up to Edayaranmula and tidal effect up to Aranmula, about 50 km upstream of the salt water front, due to thinning of fresh water flow in Pampa.The PPS has called for sand auditing in Pampa by the Centre for Earth Science Studies in every three years and sand removal should be permitted on the basis of the CESS report

The Hindu, March 22, 2008