kerala land policy1

8/14/2019 Kerala Land Policy1

1/6

Kerala State Land Policy Draft[Comments & suggestions by Dr. Thrivikramji.K.P., Professor (Retd.) of Geology,University of Kerala, C/32, Sankar Lane, Sasthamangalam, Trivandrum 695 010E-mail:[email protected]]

1

I read through the copy of the draft of new Kerala State Land Policy very keenly andcarefully and very well appreciated the commitments of administration to the concerns ofthe poor and disadvantaged in the society. It is a laudable goal if realized.

1. Land Policy & TribalsAs part of land policy a special focus is on landless tribals and the goal of grant of landand shelter and I offer my views on the former in the following..

a. Though the past week s decision by the administration on the directive from GOI, tolocate and release 2.5 ha of forest land very much inside the forests to each tribal family,looks outwardly sincere and novel but inadequate, as the beneficiaries or the membersof such families also do need some occupation or gainful employment in the proximity sothat food and clothes as well as small cash to devote for educating in the respectivefamilies.

b. The new policy lesgislated by the GOI, seems very much similar to the policies andschemes followed in the US. While a similar law in Australia was rather quashed by the

apex or supreme in Australia, ordering the national government to part-with a largechunk of the land to aboriginals as their sovereign state or so.

c. Yet, situation in US for native Indians even now are less than satisfactory as theyhave to live by certain provisions of US constitution wherein native Indians are to live inand occupy the land with in the boundaries of scores of Indian reservations oreuphemistically nations though they can work and earn a livelihood and income byworking in the neighboring communities outside of the reservations. In fact this handicapof life is not properly focused any where due to their social, economic and educationalbackwardness.

d. In India, unless an imaginative policy aiming to bring the members of the tribes intothe main stream of society, the lot of tribals will stay very much the same way they are in

now like always looking forward to potential handouts from officials or other arms orindividuals of society. The handouts motivate and ingrain their minds to be and remainan underclass, which might sustain their current life style and ultimately dis-empower ingthem.

e. What is called for is a sincere effort to get these people out of their currentenvironment of forest-animals-hunting-gathering syndrome and place them in thesocieties out in the plains of midland and lowland of Kerala. With this transformation, atleast the newer generation will be empowered like other members of the immediatecommunity they are part of. Until such provisions are part of new tribal policy, the lawmaker s intention of facilitation and realization of the ultimate goal of bringing the tribalsinto main stream of society will remain a far-cry.

f. My earnest wish is a set of proposals to give a piece of land and a shelter to all thefamilies, in the plains of midland or low land, where vibrant economic activities, plenty ofopportunities for work as well as educational facilities exist alongside. What I am askingis for a one stroke solution to facilitate a quantum leap for social benefits to the grownups and gains to the younger school age generation among the tribals.

g. If they are resettled and live in the forests, they will tend to be and continue to be inthe very same vicious circle of exploitation-penury-exploitation by various arms of the


2/6


2

society and by government machinery. Opportunities for education and highereducation chief passport to better life- will remain a dream as ever.

i. All the openings due to the STs still remain untaken by their youngsters because of

lack of good education, skill-sets, and motivations. If once every year one employablemember of each of a tribal family gets a gainful job out side the settlements orcommunities, at least by a decade a huge social transformation would have happened.

k. So far the current policies have been to improve the lot of tribals by forest centeredapproach opposed to the mainstream centered ones in the name of a golden philosophyof preserving the culture and native skills members of the tribes. As a consequence, Iam snot sure of the percentage, the majority of tribals are where they were soon afterindependence. This proposal is a policy change from present day gradualism to one offast-track-modernism.

Land policy and Fish-workers1. Conventionally the coastal land of Kerala, with the exception of space of large city

scapes are occupied by people and families who make most of their lively-hood byengaging themselves in coastal fisheries. The size of fish catch is certainly seasonalboth biologically and climatologically and of late per capita fish catch tended to diminishas a result of a steady increase in the number or teams of fish-workers attempting totarget the same geographic space.

2. On top of such uncertainties the climatic factor takes a huge toll of their savings duringthe SW monsoon season characterized by severe erosion of the beach and backshoreand occasionally even the ancient coastal plain, uprooting the standing population ofcoconut palms and the houses of different descriptions. Cement-mortar and concretehouses are perhaps the only exception to the vagaries of the monsoon wave climate.

3. As a rule of thumb, the remedy is to temporarily shift the suffered individuals to some

kind of a shelter with free food and medical care. The local schools always come handyfor use as shelters, forcing the students and classes to be kept under suspension. Theengineering solution that has been practiced until recently across the world isconstruction of design seawalls and groins (The first groin field is near Vettor in Varalabuilt during the pre-independence days). A large segment of Kerala shoreline with alength of 580 km, is under the threat of wave erosion, and with grants from GOI nearly th remains to earn the gift of seawall.

4. So far the solutions proposed for warding off the menace of coastal erosion, arebuilding seawalls at preposterously huge capital cost. If all the monies so far spent onbuilding seawalls over the last six decades, were spent on building multi-story-multi-family complexes to relocate the settlers, I would imagine that, we could have easilyprovided 100% housing for the population in the erosion-belt of the coastal land.Elsewhere in the world, the on going mantra among the coastal engineeringtechnologists goes like seawalls are good until they fail . The current mind set ofgovernment, in respect of coastal protection needs a change like relocating thepopulation or families of potentially affecteds to a place away from the reach of monsoonerosion, somewhere to the east and at least 500 m away from the modern shoreline.The over all design be something like the one given below.

5. The best possible alternative is to build multi-story apartments, at least 500 m or moreaway from the modern shoreline and to the east of it, out of the money received as grant


3/6


3

from the GOI. These complexes built on columns and beams shall not have the s treet orground level living units, and instead will be left open to allow free flow of air or apassage for seawater, in case of an occasional huge backwash. Or else it is very muchlike the car park provided in the new generation high-rise buildings. Another analogy is

the two blocks of office space erected between the old secretariat building and the northand south blocks in the capital. Such a design will neither harm the residents nor createa need to shift the suffered to relief camps operating from schools, at the expense of thestudy days. In retrospect, think of an investment in your backyard worth a few croreswhich is only fit and good as a blind in a squat latrine.

6. Therefore, as a policy do away with the seawall which is no longer the gold standardto defend the wave onslaught on people and property, instead invest those funds to buildmulti-story-multi-family apartments, away from the reach of the storm over-wash-floodingand erosion of beach in the monsoon season. We the ordinary and specialist alike haveseen the way the beach rebuilding activity taking place by the off-set of monsoon. Allthat is required is to convince the GOI on the need for a shift in the shore protectionstrategy.

Land Policy & Water heritage of Kerala

Water is getting to be a scarce commodity. In the context of global climate change, thefuture scenario on water is still anybody s guess. What we have now is that the climatyeis bound to change and as a result the dry seasons will get drier and wet seasons will bewetter. Ramifications of these near possible shifts need to be examined threadbare, andthe process is yet to take place as a national policy of priority. Being a modern society, itis our responsibility to ready our self with the knowledge, mechanisms and processes tofend off the intensity and severity of this calamity. We have to consider the c limatechange consequences in our preparedness in any new policy initiative that we elect tofollow. Land policy is o exception.

1. Several-expert-reports have proposed that in India due to the tropical monsoonclimate, 50% of precipitation is received in a matter of 15 days of an year and river flowhas a duration of only 4 months and people have adapted to this system by living near orclose to the river corridors and harvesting water for storage in surface and undergroundstructures.

2. Water future of India is not very encouraging as the demand for water has beensteadily on the rise. For e.g., decade of 50 s saw a four fold increase in water use as aresult of consumption, irrigation, industry and heat and power engineering. We havebeen building structures for water storage and use, but diligently followed a philosophyof build-neglect-rebuild. That should change.

3. In Kerala several factors affected the water systems. With the arrival of canal water(for irrigation) and inadequacy of conventional structures on the one hand and largeincrements in the size of the population on the other led to rising water needs (like food,shelter, healthcare and education). The rise of micro-households in lieu ofjoint families,introduction of equal-right-to-property-among-siblings in the family by a decree ofMaharaja and by land reforms after independence resulting in division of property intounviable and uneconomic sizes, led to the neglect and transformation of severalthousand large and small ponds by eutrophication, sedimentation and lack of


4/6


4

maintenance and even reclamation. This diluted the Kerala society s insurance againstdrought to a great extent.

4. Unfortunately, ponds, unlike other physical structures are the ones that will suffer

utmost in a model of build-and-forget paradigm. It calls for periodic repair work and orelse they go through the natural transformation to become a marsh- a prime candidatefor potential reclamation for another public or private use. As a result, with the exceptionof temple ponds, most others have practically outlived their original use and nearlydisappeared or is in the process.

5. The Panfish (v.1), published by a government fisheries agency, gives at least a headcount of all the ponds of Kerala. The saving of such ponds and re-living them asenvisioned in the land policy is commendable and needs pursuing with greatdetermination. A cataloging spatial & referencing system in a GIS platform is very muchdesirable and ideal during these days, which can be accessed by one and all like accessto water by every member of the society envisioned in the MDP (ending by 2015) of theUN This will enable the conservation of existing ponds or revival of their ghosts that

profusely occur in the midland and/or coastal land.

6. Of late, reports on accidental fall or intentional jump in to pools of water gathered inabandoned quarries have started appearing in the media. One good thing the PRIscould be required to consider, is conversion of such spots as sites of water storage orsport. A little bit of engineering treatment to make them less porous needs to beexamined to extend the service life of such accumulated water.

7. Construction of Greenways meant as a track for jogging, biking and hiking may beconsidered along the river shores to enable some degree of surveillance by the localchapter of friends of rivers/river and ponds or what ever. The PRI with decentralizedcontrol and commitment must take charge of creation and maintenance.

Land Policy, River sand and RiverUndoubtedly and truly, all the rivers of Kerala are in a morbid state, only due to theremoval of channel sand and now the sand of ancient flood plain for use in the domesticconstruction sector. For the construction sector, availability of sand or fine aggregate isas important as steel and cement.

1. On a public interest litigation say in about 2 decades or earlier, the Kerala High Courtdirected the CESS, Trivandrum and CWRDM, Kozhikod, to asses the annuallyremovable sand from the kadavus for auction by the PRI institutions as the latter has therights over the river sand a wrongly conceived piece of decentralization policy. Thisrevenue was very essential and quite attractive for the panchayats in those days, whenmoney was the only scarce thing around in their account. We all know that these days,with the exception of some states (Kerala included) PRIs fund is directly remitted byGOI to the respective accounts. For some unknown reason or known reason this doesnot happen any way in Kerala.

2.That we all deeply worry about the state of our rivers, is sufficient ground for the stateof Kerala to move the High Court to review its earlier decision on river sand assessmentto facilitate the auction by PRIs, in order to save the riverine physical system and riverecosystem. What is now called for is a ban on sand removal for say another 5 decades.


5/6


5

3.. With least knowledge of river science, but only with practical wisdom, the right-to-remove-sand is offered to clients by public auction has been continuing unabated with alicenses issued by one of the two research institutions of the state. Unfortunately, due tooverly-social reasons the sand licensing went on to a stage, when the rivers lost their

physical attributes and along side the very human ecosystem and river ecology.

4. Therefore, I suggest a total ban on use of river sand in the construction sector oneof the fastest growing sectors in the state, be legislated and in lieu of river sand, use ofcrusher sand be made a state policy. In all the fast growing economies building boom isa growth industry, consuming huge volumes hollow cement brocks, cement mortar andcement concrete, all needing fine aggregate, for which the civil engineer found a sourcein the river channels of Kerala.

5. What went into oblivion in the minds of engineer and the user community is theknowledge that the time required for formation of sand from parent rock is a very slowand long one needing at least one million years. For example, a slab of I.0 m thick rockneeds at least million year for transforming into a weathered rock from which sand

fraction (approximating only by say 27%) is released into the stream net during the rainyseason.

6. The fine aggregate or sand has a wonderful substitute in actual use, i.e., the crushersand or manufactured sand which is extensively used in casting hollow cement bricksThe arch dam at Idukki, had used up a few hundred thousand tons of crusher sand orfine aggregate for making concrete for the arch dam. [So worth of crusher sand did gothrough the acid test of strength and quality].

Land Policy, Watershed maps and PRIs1. In a study carried out during the early 80 s in the Neyyar basin, Trivandrum Dist., onthe sum of stream lengths of all stream orders taken together for the early 1910 s and11968 s, we noted a steep fall in the cumulative stream lengths in the later or 1968 base.

This primarily resulted from blocking the stream corridor by landscaping, channelplugging etc. In fact such actions in the 1st or 2nd order streams are with leastconsequences, while in the 3rd or higher orders it is a matter of intervention into thenatural system, and needs intervention of PRI s by removing and banning suchmodifications of natural flow. The paddy fields, for example when filled with soil, gothrough this process of rearrangement of water courses affection the physical system.

2. This calls for making available the maps of all water sheds created by Land UseBoard, to the respective PRIs as soft copies so that any contentions arising with in the jurisdiction can be resolved amicably. In fact it is an indirect empowerment of themembers of the local community.

SummaryA new maverick approach is needed in the new policy initiatives than a gradualismbased minimalism if fruits of the reforms are to be reaped within the life time of currentgeneration. Our tribal people do deserve places better than forests to live, prosper andhave babies with a future that are comparable with that of the folks settled in the coastalplainersand midlanders. The government has to act as a facilitator only.

The fish-workers of Kerala coastal land live from year to year a rather peculiarexistence. They are settled in parcels of land that is renewed on an early basis due towave erosion and rebuilding later by the offset of monsoon. All the money s so far


6/6


6

invested in building seawalls astoundingly over a large length in the modern backshorewere to be given in cash each affected family would have become millionaires.

It is high time that protection of that society by seawalls be modified and instead of

seawalls now what needs to be given is decent group housing complexes on columnsand beams with a free flood way at the ground level between the concrete columns. Inother words, housing blocks standing on concrete props but allow free flow of stormoverwash.

With the water heritage of ponds of variable sizes, shaft wells, springs and other waterharvesting mechanisms, land treatment and a lower population, water was available freeof cost to the various users. Scenario has transformed by the entry and spread of pipedin protected water, canal irrigation, and consequent wanton neglect, poor maintenanceand reclamation of classical water sources. Unless, a renaissance of these mechanismshappen water security might become a more elusive dream. Therefore, documentationwith spatial referencing of these facilities is put in place after research anddocumentation to keep tab on their state of affairs so that these can be considered for

regeneration and rehabilitation instead of reclamation.

Our dying rivers need a salvation so that these natural systems of the landscape andhuman ecosystem can come back to vibrancy to serve the posterity. For this a reviewpetition be filed in the Kerala High court requesting the court to reconsider its earlierdecision to fix a scientifically determined quota on removable sand for the PRI to auctionoff. Manufactured or crusher sand be recommended for construction instead of the riversand, the life blood of a river system.

------------

kerala land policy1

Documents