Facts about the Proposed Airport at Aranmula

By Kummanam Rajasekharan, Patron, Aranmula
Paithruka Grama Karma Samithy

    The whole idea of an International Airport at Aranmula is irrational. The population of Aranmula is basically dependent on a sustainable agrarian model and they are hardly the frequent fliers. The so called development with five start hotels, malls and international tourism projects that are proposed together with the airport aim at another class of capital rich people and the present population will in time be displaced together with their culture can be easily visualized. Population displacement of the traditional agrarian people is already a chronic problem in the region. Second, why does Kerala need a fifth airport, this state is a narrow strip of land 600 km long and there are already four international airports available. A major city like Mumbai, as big as Kerala, has only two airports, one international and another domestic. Gujarat, three times bigger, has only one international and four domestic airports. The implications are that this is going to be unviable, or shall ruin the prospects of other existing public sector, and other, airports. Obviously motives of the promoters are suspicious.

Malayalam Poet, Nature Crusader , Sugathakumari

The KGS Group, who came on the scene after the former group lead by one Abraham Kalamannil, who was booked under various offenses, has been  making various claims to hood wink the people and this is an attempt to clarify some of these. With the agitation against the airport reaching another mile stone, people cutting across all political and other divisions joining hands against the airport project under the able guidance of Smt. Sugathakumari there are calls that Aranmula show the path for stopping all attacks on environment and survival systems that the people are silently suffering from. There are umpteen stories that have been reported by representatives from various regions in the state and the proposed Aikya Vedi is to address these.

Site Visit: V S Achuthanandan - Photo Courtesy: The Hindu

About the claims of creating jobs, first, an airport will hardly create the number of jobs as claimed by the clever promoters. Airports do not create so many jobs, it is the airways that nay, but no clear picture is available if the airline companies shall patronize this airport. With the skewed economy in Kerala drifting after independence the have – have not gap has increased and there is a high degree of unemployment is certain, but the people to be displaced directly and indirectly shall stand to lose in the long term. And the assumed jobs shall destroy large number of traditional jobs and the profit and loss picture shall be dismal.

All Party Meeting at Aranmula, Smt Sugathakumari

The area in question are prime wet lands. Due to wrong priorities and government policies paddy cultivation may be affected. But as per the laws of the land wet lands irrespective of whether they are cultivated are conserved for their utility in water balance and ground water recharge. It is only admissible to be filled only in exceptional cases, say where someone has no other land for building and even here the procedures are cumbersome. Here the areas under conflict are classified wet lands which have made the related laws a cruel joke and those in power who support this are ineligible to manage the state and its resources. There are clear reports from the officers of state that say that the land under question are all wet lands and watersheds.

These are areas with high degree of biodiversity. there are reports from highly eminent scientists like Dr. V S Vijayan, are available. Dr. Vijayan, former chief of the state biodiversity board, whose team of five scientists have studied the area and came out with the findings that these are home to a unique ecosystem of varied plants and animals. Apart from that there are reports from the officers of the state and central governments that prove the environmental wealth of the midland wet lands. Some of the findings are:

1. The loss of these wet lands shall prove detrimental to the ground water regime of the area and their filling shall lead to water shortages as a big majority depend on well waters. 2. These are flood plains of the Pampa river and by reclaiming the wet lands the flood waters shall enter the low lying areas that are now thickly populated 3. The hills that are to be razed down for filling the wet lands shall end up hazardous for the people as landslides can happen 4. There are many rivulets, sacred groves, temples in the area which are functioning as places of worship as also ecosystem safe guards. 5. The river Pampa which is being fed by these watershed springs shall become more dry as the water sources are killed.

Agitations: Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishat

The Assembly Committee on Environment with people’s representatives have also endorsed all these arguments and have even asked for restoration of the streams wherever they are filled.

The watersheds once filled and the riverine streams filled, hills razed down, the results on the river and its water availability shall be reduced and the important functions like boat race and the ritual of Thiruvonathoni shall become unviable. It is already grave with water scarcity making movement of boats difficult, water shortages have become chronic. It is from the same river bed that water supply systems are drawing water at most places. The threat is to survival systems, apart from the symbiotic culture of Aranmula, what is also a heritage, perhaps the richest heritage, with its nature worshipping beliefs and rituals. Urbanization that shall ensue shall simultaneously Thus people offer harvested paddy to the deity to this day and most of the agrarian operations are linked to belief, the agrarian beliefs and rituals are deeply intertwined to the heritage and its conservation. This in its turn is linked to the protection of survival systems. Thus the inappropriate location of an airport at Aranmula has become a challenge on the people. It is not that the government has no alternate lands for the purpose, there are unclaimed estates, other open areas where an airport can easily be located. But some of the hidden agendas drive the airport project exactly at Aranmula, that close to the temple itself.

V M Sudheeran Addressing the People

The watersheds once filled and the riverine streams filled, hills razed down, the results on the river and its water availability shall be reduced and the important functions like boat race and the ritual of Thiruvonathoni shall become unviable. It is already grave with water scarcity making movement of boats difficult, water shortages have become chronic. It is from the same river bed that water supply systems are drawing water at most places. The threat is to survival systems, apart from the symbiotic culture of Aranmula, what is also a heritage, perhaps the richest heritage, with its nature worshipping beliefs and rituals. Urbanization that shall ensue shall simultaneously Thus people offer harvested paddy to the deity to this day and most of the agrarian operations are linked to belief, the agrarian beliefs and rituals are deeply intertwined to the heritage and its conservation. This in its turn is linked to the protection of survival systems. Thus the inappropriate location of an airport at Aranmula has become a challenge on the people. It is not that the government has no alternate lands for the purpose, there are unclaimed estates, other open areas where an airport can easily be located. But some of the hidden agendas drive the airport project exactly at Aranmula, that close to the temple itself.

Dharna, T V Babu, KPMS, chairing  

It is a clear case of violating all laws of the land that has happened in Aranmula. We doubt if the company can cite at least one single case where they have complied with the statutory needs. It is a series of violations that the company has been indulging in from the days of its inception, naked violations of law is to them part of the game. There are umpteen laws they have violated like those regulating Land Utilization, Land Use, Scheduled Caste protection, and a host of others. At least nine laws are violated as has been pointed out. With the merits of the case the district administration has frozen the land acquired and the company as per rules has very less land in its custody now. This despite an ordinance rushed through classifying the area as industrial.

The company has dished out claims that the airport is for the Sabarimala pilgrims. They say there is an

Agitation CPIM

estimated six crore pilgrims coming to Sabarimala and out of this one in 200 shall use the airport. The reality is otherwise, tose who came by the existing Nedumbassery airport at Kochi in the last season was hardly 3000 and it is common knowledge that the Sabarimala pilgrimage is a composite one with the pilgrims preferring to visit a series of temples in south India together with the Sabarimala temple. And secondly the traditional pilgrimage to Sabarimala has its norms and a good majority take the Erumeli route where the distance between the existing and proposed airports becomes negligible. Such claims only prove the ignorance of the involved people regarding the basic principles of Sabarimala pilgrimage. Thus it is a clever device they have used to make public opinion favorable. The local MLA and others who show such regard to the Sabarimala pilgrims should at least help provide basic sanitary facilities to the pilgrims at Aranmula.

Those in power are shameless in shifting stands. There is a campaign of lies that the company and the Kerala Chief Minister, who has come to be allied with the company. This is the case with the Union Defense Minister, A K Antony as well, who said initially that the ministry will not give sanctions to the airport on security grounds but later back tracked for unknown reasons. The statement of Antony that it comes under the classified area of INS Garuda, but in a matter of twenty days he changed the stand. This happened with Vayalar Ravi, then Minister of Aviation, and another Malayali, who now says that the airport may go on. The only grace in this regard is the Union Minister of Environment who has steadfastly refused to give a No Objection Certificate. It is obvious that the former honorable ministers shall have to own up and confess their sins in days to come. 

That the Congress leader and Vice Chairman P J Kurien, and Anto Antony MP are using all their might in Delhi to see the airport through is a matter of grave concern. Political connections of the KGS Group may help them with the government but at the ground level the people of Aranmula and the wider people of Kerala are beyond their reach. The battery of permissions that are required from the Village Office to Panchayat, District to State are all pending and the till date the company has not come out with a transparent plan, or other convincing project milestones. The only thing they are doing is calling Press Meets and making the Chief Minister make statements.

The former Left Front government clearing the airport plan in principle and asking the company to find its own sources of land, which on enquiries show that the company managed by telling that they have already acquired 350 acres of land. Just before this the Industries Secretary had issued notified the Aranmula area as industrial area, as learned without the ministry in the know of the matter and just before the elections. This Secretary had blindly accepted the survey numbers of 2000 acres of land given by the company. This axis between the Secretary and the KGS Group has provided the company a foothold and it is curious that the Secretary managed to issue a Gazette notification for a company with suspicious backgrounds and with no asset base or standing. The possible reasons need not be sought far.

The company claims that they only require 500 acres of land and that they shall not demolish even a single house. A lie repeated a thousand times will not become truth. No international airport can be built with 500 acres of land, the existing airports in Kerala at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi are around 1300 acres each. The Aerotropolis concept that has been announced includes an airport and spread around it a huge commercial hub which will require nothing less than 3000 acres to build. There are also allegations that the proposed airport and the area shall be made Special Economic Zones which implies far more dangerous scenarios. And to claim that they need not demolish even a single house for the project is plain absurd to begin with. Taking only the areas that come under the survey numbers notified more than 400 houses are to be acquired. In any case the people of Aranmula and the discerning people outside shall not give in to any plan that put their life in jeopardy.

Heritage of Aranmula, both tangible and intangible, are rooted in the values and beliefs of the people, ecosystem and culture. This is nurtured through generations and for regions like Aranmula this has been conserved without much damages compared to other similar regions. It is an intimate and private area of the people’s beliefs. An international airport and related establishments, what is to be worse if the aerotropolis plans come true, shall irreversibly damage the existing values, beliefs and damage the ecosystem irreversibly and that will not be permitted by the people.