The State Cabinet’s decision to have a greenfield airport in the Cheruvally estate area in Kanjirappally taluk marks an important turn in the State’s long search for easier air connectivity for NRIs from Central Travancore and pilgrims to the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple.
A greenfield airport should have taken shape in the area years ago, but that was not to be, thanks to the controversial elements of the project to have an airport in 500 acres of land at Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district. That was a project that hit an air pocket from the word go, with environmentalists and diverse other sections coming out against project proposed by the Chennai-based KGS Group in 2009.
The company had obtained clearance for its project proposal from the Union Civil Aviation Ministry on October 15, 2009. The State government too had given in-principle clearance for the KGS Aranmula International Airport project on February 2, 2010, besides notifying 500 acres of land comprising the project site in and around Aranmula as industrial area.
The company also got a clearance from the Defence Ministry. However, the villagers, under the auspices of the Aranmula Palliyoda Pallivilakku Samiti, launched an agitation against the airport project in November 2011, saying that it would require conversion of a large extent of the Aranmula Puncha (paddy fields) and wetland.
The anti-airport agitation started gaining momentum with the Aranmula Heritage Village Action Council led by Kummanam Rajashekharan, present BJP State chief, entered the scene. The villagers launched an all-party anti-airport stir under the leadership of B. Sugathakumari, renowned poet in February, 2012. The agitation gained national attention with various socio-environmental and political leaders of repute extending solidarity with the people’s movement.
Visiting the proposed project site, Madhav Gadgil, renowned ecologist, observed that the proposed airport project, if implemented, would be highly disastrous to the environment, ecology and even to the Pampa river and not to speak of its ill-effects on the socio-economic spheres of Aranmula that had been identified as a heritage village by the United Nations Development Programme.
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had granted Environmental Clearance for the airport project on November 18, 2013. But in a landmark verdict on May 28, 2014, the National Green Tribunal cancelled it.
The People’s Action Action Council withdrew its 108-day-old satyagraha following the verdict. With the BJP-led NDA assuming power at the Centre, the clearances granted by various Central agencies were withdrawn. The fate of the Aranmula airport was sealed with the LDF-led State government cancelling the in-principle clearance for the airport project and the industrial area notification on August 31, 2016.
