: Farmers in Aranmula have welcomed the announcement by Minister for Agriculture V.S. Sunilkumar that the government would resume cultivation in the Aranmula puncha (paddy fields).
A decision to this effect was taken on the basis of a memorandum submitted to the Minister by P. Prasad, environmentalist and Communist Party of India State executive committee member, and Aranmula People’s Action Council spokesman Shaji Chacko.
“The people of Aranmula would be indebted to the government if the Aranmula puncha is made arable,” said P.P. Chandrashekharan Nair, a farmer, adding the puncha had been lying waterlogged for the past several years owing to unscientific and illegal human intervention.
Several stretches of streams of the Karimaramthode, Kozhithode and Valiyathode leading to the Pampa had been illegally converted over the past 15 years leading to prolonged waterlogging of the puncha. The problem began with the dumping of earth into the Valiyathode leading to the Pampa at Nalkalickal to temporarily block water flow for the construction of a bridge on the Aranmula-Kidanganoor road. The resultant waterlogging hit paddy cultivation in the puncha. However, the Kurunthar paddy field was the last to stop cultivation five years ago following total inundation of the land.
Airport project
Worsening the situation, nearly 50 acres of the puncha was illegally converted by a private party for an airport project 10 years ago.
The villagers opposed the move by a Chennai-based business group to build an international airport, which required conversion of a major portion of the puncha. The public protest gradually grew into a mass movement spearheaded by poet and socio-environmental activist Sugathakumari. The environment clearance granted by the Union Ministry was cancelled by the National Green Tribunal. According to Prasad and Shaji Chacko, the Ministry’s immediate priority should be to make the Aranmula puncha arable and to provide necessary facility to the farmers to relaunch cultivation there.
Several farmers had turned to buffallo farming after they failed to launch cultivation in the puncha. Bhaskaran of Kaiprathalackal, who rears a dozen buffaloes, says he would be happy if the government facilitated farming in the puncha.
Mr. Prasad said the Agriculture Minister, accompanied by Principal Secretary Raju Narayana Swami, would visit Aranmula soon.
Mr. Shaji Chacko said the government should explore the possibility of launching group farming in the Aranmula puncha.
