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Popularly
known as God’s Own Country, Kerala is a small patch of land
with unique geography and unsurpassed natural beauty.
Covering an area of around 38,000 sq km, this tiny State
lies like a ribbon, between the Western Ghats and the
Arabian Sea.
Kerala is a land of rivers. Forty-four rivers that flow to
the west and the east and their many tributaries make Kerala
a truly stunning waterscape, beautiful and water-rich. These
aren’t large rivers, but their biodiversity is what makes
Kerala unique.
It was on the banks of these rivers that Kerala’s rich
culture originated and evolved. Their influence on Kerala’s
agriculture, industry and trade was enormous; even today, it
is these rivers that sustain Kerala with power and water
supply. By creating and nurturing numerous settlements and
by themselves being unique abodes of life, these rivers play
a vital role in maintaining Kerala’s rich biodiversity. They
are, literally, Kerala’s lifeline.
Unfortunately, the very existence of these life-giving
rivers is threatened by extreme environmental degradation.
Unsustainable development policies, unsound planning, human
greed and the desire for material comforts have combined
together to create this precarious situation. In essence,
Puzha Malayalam is about the environmental degradation of
Kerala’s riverine ecosystems.
The book clearly illustrates, with evidence, the dangers
that Kerala’s life-giving rivers face. It underlines not
just the degradation of the rivers, but also the damage
being done to the river basins and the surrounding
environment.
This 400-page book has fourteen chapters and starts with a
discussion on the status of rivers globally. The
introductory chapter then narrows its focus to issues that
are specific to Kerala. Chapter two examines the idea of the
river as a life-giving entity, while chapter three looks at
the unique climatic and geographic conditions that created
Kerala’s rivers.
The fourth chapter presents a birds-eye view of the 44
rivers that flow through Kerala, while chapter five examines
in some detail the unique nature and features of Kerala’s
rivers. Chapter six looks at the unique contribution that
rivers make to maintaining the biodiversity of the region.
Chapters seven and eight examine how Kerala’s rivers
influenced the cultural and economic development of the
region. The ninth chapter investigates the various factors
that have influenced the environmental degradation of
Kerala’s rivers. Chapter ten looks at the impact of the
damage caused to river basins in the State, while chapter
eleven showcases the experience of a small river in Kerala
to show how environmental degradation can cause the untimely
death of a river. The twelfth chapter presents an
environmental status update of four major rivers in Kerala —
Periyar, Bharatapuzha (River Nila), Chalakudy and
Valapattanom. Chapter thirteen examines how the proposal to
interlink major rivers in India will impact Kerala and its
rivers. The book’s last chapter discusses the practical
aspects of efforts to revive Kerala’s rivers.
Though Puzha Malayalam focuses on the environmental
degradation of Kerala’s rivers, it is also a commentary on
the overall state of Kerala’s natural environment. It is a
reminder to the so-called knowledgeable and literate
Malayalee that sustainable progress is not possible if
Kerala’s rivers are forgotten. The book also stresses the
desperate need to identify ways to protect and revive the
State’s life-giving rivers. It ends by declaring that
Kerala’s future depends on the evolution of a development
model that recognises that conserving rivers amounts to
conserving life itself.
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