The Meenachil River Protection Forum, a people’s collective for river conservation, has kick-started a ‘green audit’ of the waterbody to account for its fluctuations due to human intervention.
The river, the members say, is a connected piece of ecosystem. Hence, the threats posed to it should be diagnosed over a broad range. A thorough examination of the risks faced by the river and its relationship with a host of other natural systems will go a long way in restoring the system, according to the forum.
Risks galore
To begin with, the team audited the river banks near the Attuvanchikkad reserve area in Kidangoor and the point where the 80-metre-wide Kattachirathodu, a key tributary, meets the river. The process, which supported the prevailing narrative that the freshwater resource was on a continuous decline, also identified a host of risks faced by it.
“This was one point where all forms of challenges to the riverine system meet one another — from unscrupulous mining to encroachment of banks and levelling of the systems connected to the river,” said S. Ramachandran, forum president.
The area being a strict no-mining zone, huge deposits of sand and alluvial soil are gouged out of the river basin in the pretext of dealer licences issued to clay-making units. The activity has also led to widespread destruction of the ecosystem.
Another risk identified is the flattening of the flow-dependant systems connecting to the river such as canals and paddy fields.
In Pala next
The team will now head to the upstream area of Pala, where the waterbody is experiencing severe stress in the form of construction and encroachment. “The audit will be completed in phases and based on the study, a report will be presented to the district administration for further action,” Mr. Ramachandran said.
