Even after encroachments on the banks of various rivers in the district have been identified, legal action and steps to resume the encroached land are yet to be taken, say environmental organisations.
The delay in action often aids those trying to register the encroached land and build commercial ventures on the river-front property.
Faizal Pallikkandy, general secretary of a people’s committee formed to protect the Kallayi river, says that the Revenue Department has not initiated any legal action even after the identification of several encroachment attempts on the banks of major rivers. “Besides land-grabbing attempts, pollution too is severe in several locations due to the lack of proper protection initiatives by the district administration,” he says.
T.K.A. Azeez and P.H. Thaha, leaders of a coordination committee for river protection initiatives, point out that encroachment attempts have been identified on the banks of the Chaliyar, Poonoor river, Mampuzha and the Kuttiyadi river.
“It is a fact that the encroachers enjoy easy escape due to laxity on the part of administrators.
Even the funds allocated for the conservation of the rivers on the verge of extreme pollution is hardly utilised,” they say.
The coordination committee of various environmental forums in the district has appealed to the district administration to appoint a special squad exclusively to trace encroachments on rivers and waste dumping in them. They say that only such a squad can effectively work to keep a tab on violators.
They are also planning to conduct a detailed survey on the banks of major rivers to trace land grabbing and prepare a field record and hand it over to the district administration for proper action. Coordination committee leaders add that the survey will be carried out with the cooperation of students interested in river-protection initiatives.