Thursday, Aug 08, 2002
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Kerala
By G. Prabhakaran
Eastern Attappady, constituting an area of 500 sq. km. out of the total 745 sq. km. of Attappady hills, has received no rain this monsoon season. Though a rain shadow area, the region used to get an average of 900 mm rainfall annually compared to the State average of 3,000 to 3,500 mm. The total failure of the monsoon has resulted in large-scale damage to the key agriculture produce of the area — cotton, sugarcane, groundnut, pepper and ginger. Poverty has forced the farmers to desert Attappady and move on to greener pastures. Their destination is the non-tribal settlement bordering Tamil Nadu. The land along the river valleys in Attappady, which the tribals were cultivating earlier, has been appropriated from them. The drought has also affected livestock. A large number of cattle have died due to lack of fodder and water. The farmers are selling off their cattle in Attappady. The area is also facing an acute drinking water problem. People have to walk more than six km to fetch potable water, especially in the Mulli area. The two rivers — Bhavani and Siruvani — that flow through the area do not have enough to provide drinking water in the area. The Kodungara rivulet has already dried up. Even people living on its banks find it difficult to get drinking water. The failure of rain and the damage to crops have led to large-scale unemployment in the area. To compound their misery, wild animals that come from the Tamil Nadu forests to Attappady in search of water and fodder are attacking the farmers. Wild elephants are running riot destroying whatever plantation was left in the region. Six tribals in Attappady have fallen victims to the rampaging tuskers during the last one year. This unprecedented situation has made eastern Attappady uninhabitable, forcing the farmers to migrate to Tamil Nadu in search of employment. In the early 1950s, a large number of Tamil farmers had migrated to Attappady to cultivate on this fertile land. But, now when the rain has failed, they are deserting the area. Environmentalists say that this situation is precipitated by the wanton destruction of forests on Attappady hills during the last four decades. Since the 1950s, anticipating the nationalisation of private forests in Kerala, the erstwhile landlords of the large wooded tracts had given the right to extract timber to private contractors resulting in the total denudation of Attappady. In a span of less than 20 years, apart from the three Reserve Forests, the entire tract, including the western parts, lost all its tree cover. After the initial removal of large canopy trees during the 1950s and 1960s, the residual vegetation also was gradually removed. The rapid deforestation of the valley triggered a vicious cycle of eco-degeneration. Environmentalist groups, which prepared a "Profile of Attappady'' some time ago, said the entire Attappady plateau was covered by forests till fairly recently. Most of the western parts of Attappady had wet evergreen forests, which towards the east, changed to semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests. The Coimbatore plains had dry deciduous forests. Even today most of the Silent Valley Reserve Forest and upper reaches of the Attappady Reserve Forest (Muthikulam Reserve) and the remnant forests in the Western edges are of wet evergreen and semi-evergreen type.
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