Kerala - Kochi   

Proposal for eco-township project near Mangalavanam causes a flutter

K.S. Sudhi

Forest Department to look into possible impacts of the development; eco-groups up in arms

NO EXOTIC WARBLE: A file photo of Mangalavanam in Kochi, which has not seen migratory birds this season.

KOCHI: The Mangalavanam bird sanctuary is again under pressure. After the proposal to build a parking bay for the Kerala High Court in its buffer zone, the park is facing a threat from an eco-township project, mooted by the Kerala State Housing Board, on a site near the sanctuary.

According to the proposal, the Board will develop the township on 6.8 hectares of land. Environment-friendly hotels, lakeside cottages, commercial complexes and tourist facilitation centres will form part of the township, it says.

The proposal comes at a time when the sanctuary is passing through a sad situation.

"It is a peculiar situation in Mangalavanam with hardly any migratory birds reaching the park this season. Birds have not come at all to the park, and there have been only very few instances of birds nesting in the area," says V. Gopinath, Chief Wildlife Warden.

Tsunami to blame?

Though not sure of the reasons for the birds staying away, Mr. Gopinath suspects as culprits the environmental changes due to the tsunami in December 2004 or the construction of high-rise buildings near the park. "We will watch the situation for the next few seasons, and if the birds are not reaching the sanctuary in the coming years, we will have to presume that it can be because of the presence of high-rise buildings," he says. Tall buildings can disorient the birds. They may have also felt the area unsafe for roosting, he adds.

On the proposed eco-township project, Mr. Gopinath says the Forest Department will look into its possible impacts. However, it is not mandatory for the Board to inform the department about the project.

Environmental groups have raised a protest against the project, which has invited public wrath after being placed at the Global Investors' Meet in 2003.

The Association for Environment Protection, Aluva, has appealed to the Chief Minister to drop the project on the plea that it will destroy Mangalavanam.

The project has been proposed in the buffer zone of the sanctuary, the destruction of which will affect migratory birds and increase noise pollution in the city, say S. Sitaraman, secretary of the association, and C.M. Joy, secretary, Kerala Nadi Samrakshana Samithi.

They say that the project will worsen traffic congestion and create an acute water shortage in the city. The High Court had shelved the parking-bay project, considering the ecological importance of the area, they add.

M.K. Prasad, former president of the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, says that construction of buildings will create disturbances in the park. The draft conservation action-plan for the sanctuary had suggested that no high-rise buildings be constructed near it, he says.

`Leave it undisturbed'

According to U.K. Gopalan, environmentalist, only those development activities that help the existence of the sanctuary in its pristine condition shall be permitted in the area. Mangalavanam, the only green patch available for the people of Kochi, should be left undisturbed, says Prof. Gopalan, who brought the ornithologist Salim Ali to the park in 1976.

The Mangalavana Paristithi Samrakshana Samithi has also urged the Government to withdraw from the `hasty move' to develop the township.

No construction work can be permitted near the area, says a joint statement issued by T.P. Ramesh, president of the samithi, and K.V. Ajayakumar, secretary.

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