- The activism round Kerala’s Silent Valley was a grassroots motion to guard the pristine forests from being submerged by a proposed hydroelectric dam, highlighting the battle between environmental conservation and improvement.
- The Save Silent Valley motion gained momentum as an altruistic folks’s marketing campaign, involving college students, scientists, and residents.
- After years of activism and intervention from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Silent Valley hydroelectric venture was scrapped in 1983. The realm was later declared a Nationwide Park and have become a part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
The in a single day rains had swelled the Kunthipuzha river, the lifeline of the Silent Valley forests, right into a wild raging torrent. We had been on a visit to Silent Valley to briefly discover the myriad landscapes, gurgling streams, whimsical climate and the mysteries that stalked these unusual, darkish and foreboding forests. Alarmed by our surprising presence, a troop of Nilgiri langurs gave vent to loud and raucous calls, startling us, and disturbing the serene silence of those forests.
The yr was 1975 and unknown to us, the controversy over the Silent Valley hydroelectric venture was nearly to erupt. And little did we realise that we too can be swept right into a raging altercation over setting versus improvement. It was mere likelihood, fortuitous likelihood, that we had been in the appropriate place, on the proper time, to inform the skin world about these magnificent and pristine forests and wealthy and numerous wildlife.
The Save Silent Valley marketing campaign would quickly snowball into one of the controversial environmental campaigns within the nation. And we might be among the many first few outsiders to have witnessed the magic of those forests. Later, we’d do our personal analysis and proudly enumerate the magic of those wild lands the place no human habitation had existed for hundreds of years – to the hundreds who had stood beside us and fought for the survival of those darkish and mysterious forests.
The Save Silent Valley motion triggered the ecological consciousness of hundreds of individuals in Kerala, the tiny sliver of land wedged within the south western coast of India. And shortly, its reverberations can be felt throughout the size and breadth of the nation. It was purely a folks’s motion, an altruistic one at that, comprising hundreds of scholars, academicians, scientists, engineers and the layperson, as its foot troopers.
The last decade of the Seventies noticed the burgeoning of the early environmental actions in India: the Silent Valley, the Chipko, Apiko and the Tehri dam actions amongst others. The Silent Valley motion stood out most for its altruism. It epitomised the emergence of a brand new coverage divide: the inherent contradictions between financial improvement and ecological penalties. The teachings learnt would assist mitigate the battle within the years to come back and assist evolve a roadmap for resolving future conflicts.
The success of the Silent Valley motion kindled the environmental consciousness of an entire technology of individuals. And in consequence, the Ministry of Surroundings and Forests grew to become a powerful regulatory physique with much more powers, new environmental pointers had been written into authorities statutes, environmental affect assessments grew to become necessary and environmental prices had been weighed in opposition to improvement rewards for ascertaining the dangers and rewards of all programmes.
Nevertheless, prior to now couple of a long time we have now more and more squandered away the coverage positive aspects that we had made via these struggles. The checks and balances we had erected in our environment-development paradigm have been eroded.
It was the private intervention of the previous Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi that saved the Silent Valley. She declared a slew of guidelines and rules which pressured improvement planners to contemplate the environmental prices that improvement initiatives entailed. She was the primary Prime Minister to present credence and validity to environmental points within the nation. And it began with the Silent Valley Motion.
However it was not the primary time. On June 12, 1972, she delivered a rousing speech on the UN Convention on Human Surroundings at Stockholm, Sweden. She was the primary and solely lady Head of State to deal with the convention. And among the many first few Heads of State to overtly endorse and assist environmental considerations on a world stage.
Silent Valley historical past
The story of the Silent Valley hydroelectric venture had a protracted and chequered historical past. It was in 1928 that the British first recognized the Kunthipuzha in Silent Valley as a super location for a hydroelectric venture. It took one other 30 years for the Kerala State Electrical energy Board (KSEB) to undertake a feasibility research and survey the realm in 1958.
It was solely in 1970 that the KSEB declared its intent to construct a dam throughout the Kunthipuzha river and submitted the proposal to the Planning Fee. The Fee gave its interim consent in 1973. Actually, if the KSEB had begun accelerated execution of the venture proper then, the end result may have been starkly totally different. The venture envisaged the submergence of 830 hectares of moist evergreen forest in a synthetic reservoir to generate 120 MW of electrical energy, present irrigation amenities to 10,000 hectares and generate employment alternatives for 4,000 folks.
Nevertheless, the environmentalists feared considerably increased losses: forest cowl loss because of the development of accessibility roads, inflow of first-wave settlers via these new roads, lack of space as folks encroached the forest land to construct homesteads and declare land for agriculture and unlawful forest felling with tacit assist of presidency officers. The folks had witnessed the same state of affairs unfold whereas the Idukki dam was being constructed additional south, about 200 km away.
Sowing the seeds of the Save Silent Valley motion
In 1972, the well-known herpetologist Romulus Whitaker undertook a survey of snakes and lizards of the Western Ghats, together with the pristine Silent Valley forests. He was charmed by the paranormal title of the forests, its distinctive inhabitants however was alarmed to listen to concerning the potential dam which was to inundate its core areas underneath water.
He went again and wrote an article in what was then a World Wildlife Fund e-newsletter titled ‘Save Silent Valley,’ which quickly grew to become the rallying cry for hundreds of activists and campaigners of their pursuit to guard the valley. The motion in opposition to the dam was neither spontaneous nor was it concerted, organised or pre-conceived. It was motion constructed over time, beginning with small assemblage of people that shared data amongst themselves, introduced higher scientific readability to points and disseminated it to the ever widening circle of sympathisers, well-wishers, activists and the folks generally.
By the late Seventies, the teams and gatherings started to achieve crucial mass and momentum. Then, particular person teams started to query the veracity of the brand new dam, pointing to the ecological deluge from earlier dam experiences, which had led to huge encroachments and widespread deforestation, extreme erosion, soil degradation and floor water depletion.
The small group of scholars who had visited the Silent Valley in 1975 had, by then, joined the College Centre in Kariavattom, Thiruvananthapuram. The centre of exercise for the Save Silent Valley motion had additionally shifted to the state capital, Thiruvananthpuram.
It was the College Centre that then supplied the subsequent ember to re-ignite the motion’s exercise. Satheesh Chandran Nair and his spouse Shanthi Satheesh had been doctoral fellows on the College’s Zoology Division. Each had been gifted scientists who had extensively studied the Silent Valley forests.
The Silent Valley motion gained additional momentum when the scholars of the Economics Division organised a symposium between the proponents and opponents of the dam. With Satheesh of the College Centre taking up the Chairman of KSEB, the competition was no neck-to-neck battle. And the reason for the valley led by a large margin. Or a minimum of, the viewers appeared to suppose so. The champions of the valley realised that they’d gained the primary main battle however foresaw a much bigger and lengthy drawn out warfare forward.
In the meantime, there have been preliminary strikes in Delhi to declare the Silent Valley forests as a Nationwide Park. As a immediate counter, the state authorities issued a notification in 1979, excluding the hydroelectric venture from the purview of the proposed Nationwide Park. Six years after gaining clearance for the venture, there was hardly progress on the bottom.
Whereas the State and Centre had been engaged on this shadow boxing of nerves and technique, the proponents for the valley realised that they might not tackle the would possibly of the state authorities nor fight its large assets, employees, organisational construction or tackle highly effective establishments just like the KSEB. Even the opposition within the state legislature was in assist of the dam. The media was additionally gently professional dam, even because it strived to be even-handed, carrying each viewpoints.
Opposing the dam was a Herculean activity. These opposing realised that they had been too fragmented and wanted a cohesive organisational assist. That they had the assist of only one organisation, the Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP). They usually wanted to convey extra people and organisations underneath the umbrella.
The would possibly of the state and the ability of a wealthy and highly effective establishment just like the KSEB with large materials and intensive human assets at its command was pitted in opposition to a number of people of integrity and reputation with no organised monetary backing.
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A formidable battle
After KSSP, what got here into instant focus was the Kerala Pure Historical past Society (KNHS) in Thiruvananthapuram, a quiescent group of younger ornithologists who confined their actions completely to birdwatching, social behaviour of birds, hen habitats and shifting patterns in hen migrations.
KNHS was led by the avid and well-acknowledged ornithologist and professor Ok. Ok. Neelakantan. The professor was an individual of nice integrity, having gained stature by having accompanied the well-known ornithologist Salim Ali on his survey of birds of Kerala and Travancore. Nevertheless, there was resistance from amongst a number of members of the Society in opposition to strikes to imagine the function of an activist and campaigner for the Silent Valley.
The subsequent was a unfastened coalition of poets/writers/artists who voluntarily prolonged assist for the valley and who had been pivotal in shifting public opinion by writing and publishing poems and articles in standard magazines and newspapers. Most people quickly grew to become intensely conscious of the problems concerned. The logic of environmental preservation gained forex. The nuances of each professional and anti-dam stances quickly grew to become the purpose of debate and dialogue in native tea retailers and shops. One thing fairly distinctive to literate Kerala of these instances. The Silent Valley had burst out of the recordsdata and cabinets of the KSEB into the general public area.
Poet Sugathakumari was the pressure, that sure the folks and organisations nearer to the trigger. Carrying on from the place Romulus Whitaker had left off, Sugathakumari trainer, as she was fondly identified, adopted up on the Save Silent Valley motion. However N. V. Krishna Warrier, a author and editor whom she regarded as much as, suggested her to rename the organisation to Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi.
Because the title implies, it was not merely a change in nomenclature however of shifting focus: from saving a person Silent Valley to changing into the guardian of setting and forests generally. The Samithi grew to become the umbrella organisation underneath which a number of teams and people labored, collectively and individually, for the trigger.
In the meantime, the motion started garnering consideration on the nationwide degree. Nationwide newspapers began carrying information tales and generally editorials. The Hindu newspaper, a staunch supporter, championed the reason for the valley in editorials. The main target of consideration started to more and more shift from the state capital to the nationwide capital.
This was the period when newspapers and magazines had been all highly effective – the only real dispensers of stories, moulders of public opinion, influencing the thought strategy of bureaucrats, thought leaders and different authorities officers. New Delhi, a recent, new, information journal, revealed from the nationwide capital was one of many first in masking the Silent Valley controversy.
It despatched its reporter and photographer to do justice to an argument which was simmering over from the state to the nationwide capital. The duo stayed in Kerala for over per week, went via the voluminous recordsdata of KSEB, talked to activists and campaigners and later revealed an in depth cowl story with some beautiful footage, championing the reason for the valley. There have been different information studies from Delhi too.
The interregnum interval between 1973, when the Planning Fee gave sanction to the venture, until 1979 when there was hardly a lot headway within the venture implementation, was to show very crucial. This supplied the time for the detractors of the venture to organise and sharpen their assault. It additionally supplied time for the media to present due and intensive protection to the controversy. And eventually, it gave Satheesh, time to arrange research and scientific studies on the contentious nature of the venture and the environmental sacrifices it might entail.
The thought leaders, bureaucrats, some scientists, and Delhi’s intelligentsia generally started to take discover. One amongst them was N. D. Jayal, the Joint Secretary within the Ministry of Surroundings and Forests. There have been some analysis and surveys on Silent Valley and its ecology that Satheesh had been pursuing that caught the eye of Jayal. Issues gave the impression to be shifting properly for the Valley in Delhi.
The momentum appeared to have set in. The backing for the valley got here from a particularly numerous spectrum of scientists: M. S. Swaminathan, V.S. Viijayan, Zafar Futehally and M. P. Parameshwaran to call a number of. There was additionally Salim Ali who had visited Silent Valley throughout his hen survey of the state and extra importantly he had entry to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
By 1979, the refrain for the valley started to construct up, whilst PM Gandhi was changing into deeply and concerned within the venture. She arrange the MGK Menon Fee with Madhav Gadgil and A. Abraham as members to undertake a socio-economic feasibility research of the venture. Over two years later, the MGK Menon Committee submitted a report detailing the environmental prices of the venture and its financial positive aspects and instructed that the venture be dropped. However the final phrase had nonetheless not been stated. The ultimate govt determination from the federal government was nonetheless to come back.
On the morning of October 18, 1983, newspapers carried the headlines that the Union Authorities had determined in opposition to giving sanction to the venture. The environmentalists erupted in pleasure. However earlier than a lot progress may very well be made on the bottom, PM Gandhi fell to an murderer’s bullet on October 31, 1984. In nearly two weeks after her demise, Silent Valley was declared a Nationwide Park on November 15, 1984. And on September 7, 1985, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi devoted the Silent Valley Nationwide Park to the nation and its folks.
However the best notice of approval to the valley and those that fought for it got here from the worldwide group. It was in September 1986 that UNESCO declared the Nilgiri Biosphere as a world heritage web site the place a number of contiguous and numerous forest geographies of South India met and mixed. Silent Valley grew to become a part of the core space of the brand new biosphere reserve. It’s not simply India’s first biosphere but additionally the most important one, comprising of 5,000 sq. kms. of topographies and geographies, starting from the wind swept excessive altitude grass land shola forests with brief stunted timber which may stand up to ravages of recurrent summer season fires, to moist evergreen, moist deciduous and dry thorny forests.
The biosphere reserve comprised forest cowl from the neighbouring states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The Kerala stretch comprised a number of the thickest and most densely tree lined forests of Silent Valley, New Amarambalam forests of Nilambur, the Attappady forests and decrease reaches of the wind swept Kunda forests. Whereas Kerala may boast of the thickest forest cover, Tamil Nadu contributed the most important space which included Talaimalai Reserve Forest, Nilgiri North and Mudumalai forests. Karnataka additionally contributed Bandipur and the Rajiv Gandhi Nationwide Park.
Nevertheless, there are fragmented stretches in all these three states the place remoted forest patches nonetheless survive – combating in opposition to human encroachment, wild fires, threats of inundation via dams and different caprices of improvement. One of many greatest goal of declaring such an enormous piece of forest as biosphere reserve was that enormous contiguous forest cowl could be higher shielded from the pursuit of improvement.
Nothing a lot appears to have occurred after the realm was declared as a biosphere reserve. The try to assemble the Pathrakkadavu hydroelectric venture, within the decrease reaches of the Kunthipuzha river, in Silent Valley, stands as stark testimony that makes an attempt at improvement will proceed at the price of the setting, even in future.
However, the worldwide recognition and UN-declared Nilgiri Biosphre Reserve itself are an honour for the hundreds of nature lovers who cherished and fought for the setting.
One epilogue must be positioned right here at this juncture: When the late Sugathakumari trainer wrote to Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, one of many doyens of Malayalam literature searching for his assist for the trigger, he wrote again on a humble publish card costing 25 paise, “Shedding battles additionally want foot troopers. Depend me in.” It was with the assist of such doyens that the folks of the state turned the battle round and recorded a thumping victory.
I used to be one of many three college students who visited Silent Valley in 1975. The others had been Mammen Chundamannil from Kerala Forest Analysis Institute and Sebastian Mathew, Social Activist.
The writer is an editor, environmentalist and activist for social causes.
Banner picture: A Malabar pied hornbill, one among the many threatened fauna one can spot in Silent Valley Nationwide Park. Picture by N A Nazeer by way of Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5).
