Construction work on the land adjacent to the Kumaranasan National Institute of Culture at Thonnackal beside National Highway 66 is threatening to damage huts from where the poet wrote some of his most important works.
At a news conference here on Friday, poet and institute chairman V. Madhusoodanan Nair said the adjacent land had already been cleared to set up a granite plant and a boundary wall was under construction. The land in question formed part of an 11-hectare parcel that the institute had tried to buy paying ₹1.80 crore. The institute had completed formalities when litigation over it reached the Kerala High Court. The portion of the land next to the institute premises had been bought by a business house engaged in marble business despite there being curbs on purchase of land under litigation, he said.
Prof. Nair said the area now looked barren with trees being cleared. Soon, granite dust would fill the area and, once the plant began operation, there would be a grave threat to the existence of the fragile little huts that were the poet’s creative abode for long. The huts are now preserved as a memorial to the poet.
Threat to nature
“The large 20-22 wheeled trucks coming to the factory loaded with granite slabs would cause a lot of pressure on the land, causing mild pressure variations, which is enough to bring down the historical huts. The whole place will soon become a desert with not a shoot of green. Granite and marble dust would cause damage to the ecological balance and the pristine quality of the of the poet’s abode,” Prof. Nair said.
Construction banned
The Mangalapuram grama panchayat, under which the site comes, on November 1 stayed construction on the ground that its permission was not taken. There was no guarantee that this would bring the construction work to an end.
“We hope the company realises the seriousness of the issue and would back off themselves. We are planning to organise collective protests with the participation of all sections of people to bring the construction work to a permanent halt,” Prof. Nair said.
