Arundhati Roy wrote in her “God of Small Things”
“Downriver, a saltwater barrage had been built, in exchange for votes from the influencial paddy farmer lobby. The barrage regulated the inflow of saltwater from the backwaters that opened into the Arabian Sea. So they had two harvests a year instead of one. More rice for the price of a river”.
The barrage stands across the lake dividing the lagoon and bridging two districts Alappuzha and Kottayam through Thanneermukkam and Vechoor villages.Here the lake narrows to the minimum.The bund is between 76o 23′ and 76o 25′E and 9o40′B latitude.
Kumarakom Thanneermukkam Salt Water Barrage
Its length is 1400 mtrs. having 62 shutters(wentways) at both ends and a 470 mtr. long reclaimed portion in the middle. The construction of this project started in 1958. The western and eastern portion with 470 mtrs. each at both sides with 31 shutters each side were completed in 1967. The construction of the remaining middle part started in 1977. But this came to a stand still in the same year as the government stopped allocating the required fund. Protesting against this, some local farmers started agitation and eventually it was decided to complete the barrage by reclaiming backwaters with people’s participation. With the active participation of thousands of people the remaining middle portion was reclaimed and converted in to an island with a road connecting the two sides. The work was completed in 20 days.Shutters are fitted on either ends to control the entry of saline water to the southern part of the barrage to facilitate two crops of paddy an year. With the closure of the shutters of the bund, the
natural movements of water in and out of the lake and through the adjecent rivers and canals have ceased. Along with this the local migration of fishes and crustaceans also have ceased.Thus their breeding cycle is fatally affected. As a result the total amount of fish and prawn catch from the lake has come down considerably. Due to the obstruction of natural water flow the soil and waste started depositing to the lake floor and thus the depth of the lake too has lowered. Absence of salinity has led to the rapid growth of weeds. Stagnation of water has resulted in the growth of mosquitoes. The quality of the water has been progressively deteriorating.
The Thanneermukakam Barrier was an ambitious project of the first communist ministry of Kerala in 1957. The major objectives were (1) to prevent the intrusion of salinity to the Lake Vembanad during summer to enable a second paddy crop in the year, in the vast polders(the shutters will be closed 15th December every year before the water in the lake become saline and the salt water thus will be completely shut off, south of Thanneermukkom and this portion of Vembanad Lake will become a fresh water lake), (2) controlling flood ( shutters will be opened before June every year for the discharge of flood), (3) facilitate transportation of people and goods (4) enable fresh water fish culture etc. While the people all over the state were praising the project, one farmer Mr. John Abraham, Kumarakom wrote in Malayala Manorama daily an article vehemently criticising the project. He said that the project would upset the balance of nature and prevent tidal flow causing water pollution and health problems. Nobody took heed and the authorities went ahead with the project.
The original decision was to keep the shutters of the barrier open for a period from 31st March to 15th December every year after the harvest of punja crop. Since the harvesting in many parts of Kuttanad was extended on many occasions, the government was forced to delay the opening of shutters even till June. The fishermen were keen on early opening of the shutters to facilitate ingress of fish and fish seeds from sea. The conflicting interests of farmers and fishermen in opening the barrier had often led to serious law and order problems
The boomerang
The closure of the barrage and prevention of intrusion of saline water into Kuttanad has created new ecological problems. The periodic tidal flow, which used to flush the water-body, was completely prevented. The adoption of high input rice cultivation practices and the indiscriminate use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers coupled with stagnant water condition in the lake consequent to the cutting off of tidal circulation led to near elimination of several fish species.
The most appalling ecological outcome of these interventions has been the disruption of the physical and biological continuity of the lake with the coastal waters. This fuelled the decline of fish production and species diversity upstreams of the lake that used to support a heterogeneous assemblage of euryhaline, truly estuarine and fresh water species. The very negligible incidence of commercially important planktophagous and herbivorous species such as mullets (thirutha), milkfish (poomeen) etc in the upper reaches left vacant and underutilized niches in the tropic structure, upstream the lake. Such a situation was not effectively compensated through replacement by suitable freshwater species either, resulting in a near collapse of the lake fishery. Continued closure of the Thanneermukkom barrage even during the pre monsoon months prevented the ingress of marine and estuarine migratory fauna in to the southern sector of the lake. In effect this has been detrimental not only to the lake fishery but also to the coastal fisheries as this limited the nursery area of several coastal marine species. The maximum salinity values south of the barrage has been reduced to 4.31 ppt as compared to 23 ppt that existed in the area during the pre barrage period.
Many economically valuable varieties of fishes especially Penaeid Prawns whose life cycle is connected with sea and lake totally disappeared from the area after the closure of the bund. Fishing from canals and interior water bodies, which was very common in Kuttanad, became impossible due to growth of aquatic weeds and pollution. Fishing became possible only from the deep lake, from where the main catch is Karimeen (Etroplus).
Decline of Kuttanadan Konchu
The physical obstruction of the barrage also affected the very lucrative commercial prawn fisheries in the lake. Kuttanad is the home ground of the renowned `Attukonchu‘, Macrobrachium rosenbergi. With the commissioning of the barrage, the upstream and downstream migration of the giant prawns, Macro brachium Rosenbergi, (Kuttanadan konchu) was totally disrupted leading to diminution of its fishery in the lake. The annual catch of this species during the pre barrage days has been as high as 429 tons, which dwindled to less than 39 tons in the late eighties. The alarming decline of this valuable endemic resource is principally attributed to the physical obstruction inflicted by the barrage on the breeding and migration of the spawners downstream and the reverse migration of post larvae back to their home grounds in Kuttanad.
Disappearance of mangroves
Another major ecological conseque- nce of these inter-
ventions has been the near extinction of the mangroves that fringed the estuarine shores. Mangrove plants are well known for their pneumatophores (negatively geotropic root system) which form breeding ground for several species of fishes, reptiles amphibians and prawns. Mangroves and Mangrove associates together forms a very complex ecosystem supporting the life of a variety of organisms. The littoral thickets are the naturally suited areas for many species of common as well as migratory birds for nurturing their young ones. The disappearance of the once luxuriant mangrove formations in Kumarakom region of the Vembanad waters and its correlation with the poor breeding recruitment of pearl spot (Etroplus suratensis) is cited to indicate the direct inter-relationship of mangroves and estuarine fisheries.
The fishery production in the entire wetland has been reported to decline very much after the commissioning of the barrage, consequent to ecosystem alterations. On the vast upstream stretches of the lake, that constituted over fifty percent of the lake expanse, the exploited catches has been a mere seven percent of the total, which obviously indicates the extent of decline. Such a situation has been attributed to the lowering of species diversity and the chronic imbalances created in the species spectrum of the lake, consequent to ecosystem alterations.
The economic loss due to the construction of Thannermukkom barrier in fisheries has not yet been estimated. Kuttanad has a lot of canals and watercourses everywhere. Almost 80% of the household owned some small devices for catching fish for consumption or sale from nearby canals or other water areas. So the majority of the people of Kuttanad used to get fish for their daily consumption free of cost. But after the closure of the barrier the canals were chocked with succulent weeds and the water level lowered. Fish growth and fishing thus became impossible from this area. Thus the people of Kuttanad were denied their valuable and nutritious food made available to them free by nature. This has conspicuously affected the health and well being of the people of Kuttanad. These are grave problems created by the Thannermukkom barrier affecting the health of the populace and hygiene of the locality around every household.
The activities carried out by fishermen and farmers are in conflict regarding the operation of the barrage. The fishermen would like the barrier to be fully open by November-December when the strong tidal flow carries fish fingerlings in to the lake. When the barrier is closed, tidal action is stopped and many important types of fishing gear, which take advantage of the tidal flow of water, cannot be used. The farmers on the other hand argue for closing the barrier prior to the high tidal flow so that their rice fields are protected from salinity intrusion from the sea. The barrage is generally closed in November-December to facilitate early sowing of the rice crop. The fishermen have often prevented the authorities from closing the shutters of the barrage. It is only after the interaction of civil authorities and police that the shutters could be closed on many occasions. In recent years fishermen dive down and put stones at the bottom so that shutters of the barrier do not close fully. A law and order problem is thus created, which the District Collector is expected to resolve. Although the opening of the barrier is fixed as March 15, it is often delayed up to May, to help the farmers to take their delayed harvest. This again cut into the livelihood of the fishing folk. However the social power relations ensure that the rice farmers’ concerns have the upper hand compared to that of the fishing folk
already disadvantaged by their caste, class and political position in the social structure.
Kuttanad was a large-scale producer of golden coir fibre extracted from retted coconut husk. Retting process involves sinking the husks in shallow saline water for six months. This loosens the fibre and decomposition sets in. But after closure of the barrier fiber produced from the husk retted in the static and polluted water inside the barrier turned out to be of inferior quality. Retting is also impossible due to drying up of canals during summer. As a result the familiar scene of thousands of workers beating soaked coconut husk for making golden fibre and spinning coir faded out from Kuttanad. The huge quantity of coconut husk, which gave employment to thousands of people in the locality, is now exported to outside or being used as domestic fuel.
There are certain benefits also with the commissioning of Thannermukkom barrier. A second crop in about 300 ha. of the paddy area, cultivation of cocoa, plantain, and vegetables etc. as intercrops in coconut garden became feasible with the availability of fresh water round the year.
But the colossal loss in fisheries and the social damage inflicted by the health and hygienic problems created by the barrier far outweigh its benefits. A people-oriented, realistic cost _ benefit analysis of this project is yet to be done.
With all these conflicts and problems looming large, the gigantic barrier still silently serves as a good bridge providing easy reach of travellers from Kochi and Alappuzha to Kumarakom.
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