Pollution, land encroachment, and a declining timber industry. The three banes of Kallai are related to one other. But nothing that a firm hand cannot solve in the present circumstances.
An order of the Kerala High Court in July this year put an end to decades of debate and legal battle between the Revenue Department and land occupants at Kallai in favour of the former. “The court has directed the State government to sort out the claims of those who have occupied the land on the river bank and to take action against encroachments, if any, in six months,” said E. Anitha Kumari, tahsildar of Kozhikode, who has been in the forefront of reclaiming revenue land at Kallai.
It has just been a few of decades since Kallai, once a major centre of timber trade, lost its glory. Trade flourished here during the British era, but the non-availability of timber due to stringent laws against deforestation in the later part of the 20th century led to its doom. “There were hundreds of sawmills and timber merchants at Kallai half a century ago. Just 20 years ago, there were 68 sawmills. However, there are just seven now,” pointed out Faisal Pallikkandy, secretary of the Kallai Puzha Samrakshana Samiti (river protection committee), which has been fighting against encroachments on the river and for the revival of the timber industry since 1996.
No man’s land: The remains of a building in an encroached area at Kallai. The structure was demolished in 2006.
It was the decline of the timber industry that led to encroachments. Timber merchants who had received land on lease from the government, while abandoning their business, handed over the property to others, for other industries, sometimes forging documents to show that they owned the land. Thus, oil mills and warehouses replaced timber business. “The government had given only 1.8 acres of land on lease for three years. But the occupants have been keeping it as if they own it and as a curtain for their encroachments,” Mr. Pallikkandy said.
While local environmentalists have pin-pointed the encroachments at least two decades ago, the Revenue Department woke up to the reality much later. Though attempts were made to reclaim the land since 2005, the efforts gained momentum only recently. A revenue survey in 2017 identified 28.5 acres of encroached land on the north bank of the river.
Pollution of the river is linked to the earlier two issues. Timber logs buried in the water for decades have affected the water quality. But pollution could be mainly attributed to the Conolly Canal that links the river with Korappuzha in the north. “There are a number of industries and hospitals that discharge effluents into the canal which ultimately reaches the river,” Mr. Pallikkandy said. Dumping of garbage on the banks has further worsened pollution. “The water in Kallai is black in colour. Repeated tests conducted by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management has found that the oxygen level in the water is very low, and that fish cannot survive in it,” he added.
Won by stealth: An encroachment in the making on the banks of the Kallai near Kothi bridge.
The recent court order, if well executed, will be a trigger to solving all the three issues in Kallai. “Once the government takes a decision on what to do with the land, it can either give it away on time-bound lease once again or use it for other purposes, possibly to promote tourism,” Ms. Anitha Kumari said.
Timber, as old as 50 years, and hence very strong, lie abandoned in the bottom of the river. “If auctioned, it can fetch the State a tidy sum, enough to rebuild Kerala,” Ms. Anitha Kumari said, explaining her solution. “Once the timber and silt deposit are removed, water will not be stagnant anymore and will start flowing freely. A free-flowing river will automatically reclaim the encroached land,” she observed. With some inputs from the Kozhikode Corporation to check the discharge of effluents into the Conolly Canal and waste dumping, the river will be pollution-free in no time, she said.
If illegal occupants are removed from the picture, genuine timber merchants will have more chance to survive at Kallai. “We want the timber business to return to its old glory. Genuine timber merchants here have never supported encroachers,” said P.P. Ummer Koya, convenor of the Kallai Timber Merchants’ Association.
However, the Revenue Department has not taken any steps to reclaim the land even one month after the High Court passed the order. “We need specific instructions from the State government on what to do with the land,” Ms. Anitha Kumari said.
Meanwhile, the Puzha Samrakshana Samiti feels that the delay may benefit encroachers. “The constant transfer of officials is a major hurdle. A new official takes time to study the issue. By the time they are thorough, it is time for them to depart,” Mr. Pallikkandy said. The samiti has mooted the formation of a special team to handle encroachment on Kallai.
Threat from ‘mafia’
Encroachers and land mafia at Kallai has been very active the whole time too, influencing officials and threatening those who did not relent.
Lost glory: Logs of wood are soaked in the river for years to strengthen them. Very few timber-based industries remain at Kallai, a region once known across the world for its timber trade.
E. Anitha Kumari, tahsildar of Kozhikode, has received dozens of threats while actively pursuing the cause of the Kallai river. “I took time to study the matter thoroughly and was the one to provide relevant findings to court. I could submit proper documents to validate the government’s claim on the land, which sabotaged all the claims of permanent lease or ownership that the occupants have made so far,” she said, citing reasons for her being in the bad graces of the land mafia in Kallai. “My order to remove timber from the depths of the river and to set up ‘jhendas’ irked them,” she said.
A jhenda is a concrete construction to mark a border. The department was forced to set up 100 jhendas along the north bank of the river to demarcate the encroached land amid much protest from land occupants, after the border stones earlier placed vanished within days. “They had removed the ownership boards set up by the department and constructed new buildings in a demarcated property,” said Faisal Pallikkandy, secretary of the Kallai Puzha Samrakshana Samiti.
The members of the samiti too have been receiving death threats. “These people have political influence. Once an MLA called me up and asked not to get involved in the issue,” Mr. Pallikkandy said, reminding that the government needed to use an iron fist to check the mafia and implement the court order at Kallai.
