Citizens must stand up for environment

Grassroots initiatives by community leaders can make a difference in controlling the quarrying of ecologically sensitive areas and safeguarding biodiversity. In an era of rising climate shocks, this approach holds hope

In a rather unusual function at Kannur in Kerala recently, Maju Puthenkandam and Mustafa Pallikkuth, two otherwise ordinary members of India’s farming community, were felicitated and presented with cash awards for their pioneering activities in addressing the two major environmental challenges of the day — those of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. For this, they had drawn on India’s greatest strengths, our democracy and the information and communication technology (ICT) revolution that has empowered people with easy access to knowledge.

Mining and quarrying are agents of destruction of biodiversity, precious water resources and the quality of people’s lives (HT PHOTO)

In 2008, as the president of Kadanad panchayat, Puthenkandam set up the biodiversity management committee (BMC). This BMC involved other experts and volunteers in all 13 wards of the panchayat, and by pooling together information from all farmers and other members of the community, prepared the people’s biodiversity register (PBR). The document noted that the quarrying of rocks in the biodiversity-rich Perumkunnu hills was detrimental to it and should be halted. The BMC requested the Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBDB) to appoint experts to assess the environmental impacts of quarrying and crusher units; KSBDB did so in December 2011.

The Kerala high court examined this case in 2012 and upheld the Kadanad panchayat’s decision not to allow quarrying as it was based on solid evidence. Vested interests then convinced the panchayat that its resolution would only bring the area under the stranglehold of a tyrannical forest department, and that people would suffer more in its hold than because of the quarry. Worried, the panchayat rescinded its resolution.

But this has extracted its price. There were several major landslides, accompanied by intense rainfall, in the Idukki and Kottayam districts of Kerala around October 2021. At least 11 people died in the Idukki area and another 14 in the Kottayam area; the worst to suffer was Koottickal in Kottayam, close to Kadanad where people have been agitating for over a decade to stop the operation of rock quarries. On the day of the disaster, the quarries did not stop work even during torrential rains and the sounds of explosions from the quarries could be heard all through the landslides and rainfall. Although only three quarries are mentioned in the official data, more than 17 were spotted in satellite images. As many as 5,924 quarries continue functioning in Kerala despite such calamities. In fact, the government approved 223 new quarries, after the 2018 Kerala floods. This is going on although it is well established that there is a close link between hard-rock quarrying and slope failures in the form of landslides.

In Malappuram district, Pallikuth has similarly organised BMCs and worked with local college students to prepare PBRs, to bring out the adverse impacts of quarrying on biodiversity, and halt the operation of quarries. These are significant attempts to operationalise the provisions of the biological diversity act that every local body would “constitute a biodiversity management committee within its area for the purpose of promoting conservation, sustainable use and documentation of biological diversity including the preservation of habitats, conservation of land races, folk varieties and cultivars, domesticated stocks and breeds of animals and microorganisms and chronicling of knowledge relating to biological diversity”.

A PBR is meant to serve as a basis for promoting conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, including preservation of habitats, and is not documentation for its own sake. Regretfully, the government machinery has not permitted this to happen anywhere; hence these attempts from Kerala are major steps forward.

Mines and quarries are major agents of the destruction of biodiversity, precious water resources and the quality of people’s lives. This is captured in the observations of the MB Shah Commission on illegal mining in Goa that found provisions of the Mines and Minerals Act were flouted, leading to serious levels of loss to the ecology, environment, agriculture, ground water, natural streams, ponds, rivers, and biodiversity. The commission estimated that illegal mining has resulted in losses to the tune of ₹35,000 crore in Goa between 2006 and 2011.

Mining and quarrying — especially the crushing of stones to make man-made sand — have seriously adverse implications for the climate crisis by adding to India’s already high aerosol load. High aerosol load means that what would otherwise have constituted a gentle drizzle lasting six hours now comes down as intense rain for 30 minutes. The result is more intense floods as well as increased chances of landslides, breaching of bunds, and the collapse of buildings. It is then clear that while mining and quarrying cannot be halted totally, it must be moderated, its excesses curbed and the interests of people at the grassroots protected.

Throughout the world, it is people who have ensured that the rulers pay due attention to environmental concerns; that this is beginning to happen in our democracy through the efforts of simple people, working at the grassroots and taking advantage of the modern knowledge age, is a most welcome development.

Madhav Gadgil is one of India’s most widely regarded ecologists. He is a former professor of the Indian Institute of Science, where he founded the Centre for Ecological SciencesThe views expressed are personal