The Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 - തദ്ദേശ...

Chapter 4

Environmental Baseline and Implications of Development Interventions at the Local Level

4.1. Introduction

his chapter looks at the environmental baseline pertaining to the state of Kerala vis-à-vis

aspects relevant to the proposed local government strengthening project. The physical and

biological environment in the state has been discussed in addition to sectors such as

agriculture, irrigation, fishery, industry, water& sanitation, pulic works, housing etc. To

illustrate typical local environmental issues in context of specific Local Governments, a

discussion on the State of the Environment (SoE) report 2005, of sample gram panchayaths and

municipalities has been included. These reports delineate typical environmental issues, their

implications and the LSG‟s / community‟s response at the local level.

The Panchayati Raj Act of Kerala defines a host of mandatory functions, general functions and

sectoral functions to be performed by three tier local self government institutional set-up. The

long list of functions mentioned in the act, encompass a diverse spectrum of sectors and

services. Consequently, the nature of environmental and social (E&S) implications resulting

from the performance of these varied functions also spans an equally wide range. While the

E&S impacts in respect of certain functions could be of substantially adverse nature, impacts

in respect of certain other functions could be, on the other hand, outright beneficial, which is

exactly opposite of the former. Further, certain other act functions may be completely neutral

in terms of E&S impacts.

In addition to the above, an attempt has been made to develop an in-depth understanding of

adverse E&S impacts that can be caused by sectoral programmes and interventions by

development departments under state and central schemes by including them as well in the

environmental and socal analysis carried out as above, using the same activity-impact matrix

method.

Subsequently, to get a first hand feel of the development paradigm and environmental

concerns of local bodies, structured focus groups discussions were organized in selected three

tier Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies. This Chapter summarises the environmental baseline,

findings of the the activity-impact matrix analyisis and the highlights of the Focus Group

Discussions conducted in selected local bodies.

4.2 Environmental Baseline

The state of Kerala is situated at the western edge of the tip of the Indian peninsula. The

topography in this region is unique in the sense that the land mass rises from 5m below sea

level in the west to the towering heights of 2695 m above mean sea level in the east within a

relatively short span of 120 km. The state has a geographical area of 38863 sq. km with a base

length of 560 km along the coast and width ranging from 11km to 124 km. Physiographically,

there are three natural regions namely, lowlands, midlands and the highlands which have very

different climates and ecology. The three regions are shown in the map given in Fig 4.1.

TT

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Environmental Assessment Report

Kerala Local Government Strengthening Project

Suchitwa Mission, Thiruvananthapuram

Figure 4. 1: Topograpical regions in Kerala (source www.prokerla.com)

Geologically, there are four major rock formations namely, crystallines, sedimentaries,

laterites and recent and sub recent sediments. Though Kerala has a variety of mineral

deposits, they are not plenteous. The sandy beaches of Kerala contain ilmenite, the main ore

of titanium, and rutile (titanium oxide).

There are extensive deposits1 of white clay and commercially valuable deposits of graphite,

lignite (brown coal), limestone, and mica in Kerala. Iron ore has been found at Calicut. Kerala's

monazite, magnetite, sillimanite, and zircon deposits are largely undeveloped. Apart from this

the beach sand of Kerala is rich in radioactive elements. Although it has been proved that

there are deposits of gold at some places of Wayanad, Kozhikode and Malappuram districts,

mining is yet to start. Neendakara, Chavara and Kayamkulam regions have ample deposits of

illuminate, magnetite, zircon etc. Following are some other mineral deposits found in Kerala:

White Clay: Various places of Thiruvananthapuram district have rich deposits of white

clay. Apart from this Kundara and Chattannur of Kollam district are famous for their

plenteous deposits of China clay. This china clay is extensively used for the production

of ceramic wares and materials such as electric fuses.

1 www.prokerala.com

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Chapter 4

Environmental Analysis of Developmental Interventions at Local Level


Graphite: Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts of the state have abundant deposits

of graphite. Being a multipurpose mineral, graphite is used in making a variety of

products.

Silica sand: This is the main constituent of glass and therefore the major raw material

of glass industry. Silica is found in various part of Alappuzha district like Cherthalai,

Panavalli, Pallippuram etc.

Iron ore: Deposits of Iron ore has been found at various places surrounding Kozhikode.

Bauxite: Fairly large deposits of bauxite have been found at various places of the

Kollam district like Shooranadu, Adichanelloore etc.

4.2.1 Demography

Kerala's population as per Census 2001 was 318.41 lakh, 3.1% of that of the country. Among the

districts in Kerala, Malappuram has the highest population of 36.3 lakh while Wayanad has the

lowest at 7.87 lakh. The population density of the state is about 819 people per square

kilometres, three times the national average. Kerala is one of the densest States in the

country. The district wise population figures for the state are given in Table 4.1.

Among the districts of Kerala,

Alappuzha has the highest density

of population with 1489/Km2 and

Idukki has the lowest with 252/Km2.

The decadal growth rate had been

at higher rate from 1941 to 1971

and since then the growth rate has

been declining. The state recorded

a decadal population growth of +

9.42% (1991-2001). Among the

districts, Pathanamthitta had the

lowest decadal growth rate of

population of 3.72% and

Malappuram, the highest growth

rate of 17.22%. Kerala, with a sex-

ratio (females per 1000 males) of

1058, is the only state in India with

a positive figure. This indicates very

high potential for economic growth.

The proportion of people in the

working age group is 63.4% in Kerala

as against 55.6% in India. As per 2001 Census, the total number of old age persons was 33.36

lakh, with highest percentage of old age population in Alappuzha district. 74% of the

Table 4.1: Kerala Districtwise Population

District Population Males Females

Thiruvananthapuram 32,34,356 15,69,917 16,64,439

Kollam 25,85,208 12,49,621 13,35,587

Alappuzha 21,09,160 10,14,529 10,94,631

Pathanamthitta 12,34,016 5,89,398 6,44,618

Kottayam 19,53,646 9,64,926 9,88,720

Idukki 11,29,221 5,66,682 5,62,539

Ernakulam 31,05,798 15,38,397 15,67,401

Thrissur 29,74,232 14,22,052 15,52,180

Palakkad 26,17,482 12,66,985 13,50,497

Kozhikode 28,79,131 13,99,358 14,79,773

Wayanad 7,80,619 3,91,273 3,89,346

Malappuram 36,25,471 17,54,576 18,70,895

Kannur 24,08,956 11,52,817 12,56,139

Kasargod 12,04,078 5,88,083 6,15,995

Total 3,18,41,374 1,54,68,614 1,63,72,760

Source : Census India 2001

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population lives in rural areas. The population growth and decadal growth rate of Kerala are

depicted in Figure 4.2. In the human development and related indices Kerala occupies prime

position among the Indian States.

Figure 4.2: Trends in population growth in Kerala

4.2.1 Land use

The landscape of Kerala is a result of marine, fluvio-marine/estuarine, fluvial, denudational

cum depositional and denudational processes. As a result, the low land is characterized by

beaches, coastal plains, river terraces, marshes and lagoons. The midland consists of dissected

peneplains with numerous flood plains, terraces, valley fills and colluviums. The high ranges

run parallel to the coast from south to north with a break at the Palghat gap region. The

denudation process with ever active tectonics resulted in 44 river basins, 1750 sub basins and

4452 mini watersheds. The increased pressure on land for more resources and accelerated

human interventions in the form of mining, quarrying, filling of low lands along with all the

ingredients like high rainfall, undulating topography etc has led to significant land

modifications influencing the biophysical system and adversely affecting the ecological

security and environmental

stability. The major

environmental issues

confronting land

environment are land use

change, mining, soil erosion

and soil quality

deterioration. There are

various initiatives to

mitigate/manage these

issues, in order to upgrade

the overall environmental

systems.

Figure 4.3 shows the land

use pattern in Kerala. It can be seen from the figure that about 55% of the land is under

cultivation. 28% of the state is covered by forests. The amount of land under non-agricultural

uses is about 11%. These are the main three categories accounting for more than three-fourths

POPULATION GROWTH- KERALA

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

1901

1911

1921

1931

1941

1951

1961

1971

1981

1991

2001

Po

pu

lati

on

in

lakh

s

Rural

Urban

Total

POPULATION- DECADAL GROWTH RATE

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001G

row

th r

ate

(%

)

Area under

cultivation

Figure 4. 3: Land use distribution in Kerala Source: http://www.kerenvis.nic.in/pdftables/land1.pdf

http://www.kerenvis.nic.in/pdftables/land1.pdf

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if the total area of the state. The rest of the land uses such as barren / uncultivated land, land

under miscellaneous tree crops, permanent pastures and grazing land and cultivable waste

land account for very small portions of the overall land share.

Table 4.2: District wise Land Use for Kerala for the year ending 2007- 08 (in Hectares)

District

Area

For

Land

Utilisation

Statistics

Not Available For Cutivation Other Uncultivated Land Excluding Fallow Land Fallow Land

Net

Area Sown

Total

Cropped

Area Forests

Area

Under

Non Agricultural

Uses

Barren

and

Un Culturable

Land

Total

Permane

nt

Pastures

and

Other

Grazing

Lands

Misc Tree

Crops and

Groves not

Included in

Net Area

Culturable

Waste

Land

Total

Fallow

Lands

Other

than

Current

Fallows

Current

Fallow

Total

ALAPPUZHA 141011 0 33178 149 33327 0 153 13956 14109 4462 4634 9096 84479 109455

ERNAKULAM 305826 70617 51734 405 52139 1 131 8182 8314 5308 9749 15057 159699 184773

IDUKKI 436328 198413 23077 2615 25692 171 248 1517 1936 892 1032 1924 208363 295783

KANNUR 297112 48734 32940 3513 36453 0 185 6008 6193 1993 4946 6939 198793 218606

KASARGOD 199166 5625 28630 8842 37472 15 2260 12415 14690 2590 2470 5060 136319 145083

KOLLAM (QUILON) 248788 81438 31345 228 31573 0 115 958 1073 1716 4646 6362 128342 170901

KOTTAYAM 220442 8141 29636 1805 31441 0 160 6577 6737 3372 3885 7257 166866 215902

KOZHIKODE 234641 41386 31017 1084 32101 0 188 1364 1552 714 2522 3236 156366 211576

MALAPPURAM 355446 103417 43212 2614 45826 8 427 5221 5656 4637 10749 15386 185161 247031

PALAKKAD 447584 136257 57506 2902 60408 0 1822 26037 27859 9131 17142 26273 196787 322171

PATHANAMTHITT 265277 155214 17863 381 18244 0 118 2911 3029 3571 3050 6621 82169 106706

THIRUVANTRUM 218781 49861 24393 318 24711 8 60 474 542 329 2457 2786 140881 158827

TRISSUR 302919 103619 42380 424 42804 7 382 6090 6479 6050 14617 20667 129350 174221

WYNAD 212966 78787 15767 247 16014 6 148 1054 1208 449 1054 1503 115454 200059

State Total 3886287 1081509 462678 25527 488205 216 6397 92764 99377 45214 82953 128167 2089029 2761094

Source: www.dacnet.com

Table 4.2 (above) gives the district wise land use figures for the entire state. It can be seen

that the land under non-agricultural uses is quite significant.

4.2.1.2 E&S Impacts of Land-use

Land use changes are manifested, generally, as change in cropping pattern, quarrying, slope

modification, soil excavation, conversion of paddy lands and swampy areas and filling of

wetlands etc. Such changes affect the environment adversely by way of intense soil erosion,

water logging, water scarcity, mono cropping and loss of biodiversity. Terrain modifications,

generally effected as a prelude to land use changes, at times, lead to catastrophic incidences

such as landslides, increased recurrence of earth tremors and land subsidence. Population

growth, migration, urbanization, industrialization and globalization are the major factors that

led to significant land use change in the State. The land use changes over the years were

instrumental in changing the landscape ecology, which had far-reaching environmental

consequences. The conservation, development and management of land resources based on

agro-ecological and social parameters are vital and it requires resource based land use

planning for agricultural and non-agricultural uses with special consideration for fragile

ecosystems such as paddy fields, high lands etc.

Mining of natural resources involves extreme disturbance to biological life systems, in general,

and violation of the rights of local communities in particular. The major mining activity in the

State is confined to the bleaching clay and china clay deposits. There are also unorganized

mining activities, especially with respect to tile and brick clay, alluvial sands, crystalline

rocks, soils etc. Many of the mineral occurrences are in very fragile physical, biological and

social environments and therefore, the pressure exerted and the impacts are high in terms of

magnitude and intensity and mostly permanent in nature. Though the Central and State

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Governments have introduced various regulations to minimize the environmental repercussions

due to mining activity, there are serious shortcomings in its implementation.

Soil erosion results not only in the loss of soil materials, but also in the loss of soil nutrients,

and soil bio-resources. Loss of soil causes decrease of soil volume over the bedrock that is

available for storage of water and hence will reduce effective water availability for growth of

plants as well as recharge of ground water. Soil flora and fauna that is abundant in the surface

soil and responsible for the fertility and productivity of soil, also get washed off along with top

soil. In Kerala, the soil erosion is mainly due to flowing water and is catalyzed by peculiar land

form, soil types, climate and landuse. The quantum of eroded soil or debris gets transported

over land or deposited in ponds, rivers, reservoirs and lakes or washed down to the sea. There

is continued effort on effective implementation of watershed based development programmes

with thrust on agronomic measures.

Intensive cultivation, often with incorrect crop and soil management practices, give rise to

heavy loss in soil quality. The neglect of organic or green manure application, excessive or

imbalanced application of chemical fertilizers, indiscriminate use of insecticides, fungicides,

herbicides etc gave rise to alterations in soil structure, which in turn led to changes in all

other soil quality attributes. The poor performance in industrial and municipal waste

management further aggravated the scenario. The enhanced land and water pollution has its

manifestations not only in agricultural productivity but also in increasing disease burden. The

drive for organic cultivation and effective pollution control is yet to catch up with the

necessity.

The land is mostly subjected to undesirable practices and hence subjected to serious

degradation in Kerala. In order to overcome this and to have a comprehensive action plan for

conservation and management of limited land that the State has, it is appropriate to evolve a

detailed Land Use Policy, integrated action plans and statutory regulations and appropriate

institutional mechanisms for their effective implementation. Preventive and curative measures

against pollution and contamination of soil and land may receive high priority for years to

come, and technological measures to prevent the ill effects on human health will get priority

in short term.

4.2.2 Water resources

The normal rainfall of the State is estimated to be 2903 mm, however, the spatial and

temporal distribution pattern is mainly responsible for the frequent floods and droughts in

Kerala. The average annual rainfall in the lowland of Kerala ranges from 900 mm in the south

to 3500 mm in the north. In the midland, annual rainfall ranges from 1400 mm in the south to

4000 mm in the north. In the highlands, annual rainfall varies from 2500 mm in the south to

about 6000 mm in the north. About 60 % of this rainfall is received during Southwest monsoon

period (June- August), 30 % during North- East monsoon and the remaining 10 % during the rest

of the year. There are certain pockets such as Attappady in Palakkad district where the

average annual rainfall is only 600 mm.

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The seasonality in precipitation and inflow leads to considerable variation in water availability

and demand in Kerala. It is estimated that only about 15% of the surface flow is available for

six months from December to May. But the requirement of fresh water during this period is

almost about 70-75% of the annual requirement. The supply and demand situation of fresh

water from various sources annually and during summer season is given in Table 4.1 and Table

4.2.

Table 4.1. Annual and summer season water availability

No Item

Water resource potential (Mm3)

Total Utilisable annually Utilisable during

summer

1

2

3

Surface water

Groundwater

Surface storage in

reservoirs

77,900

7,900

5,500

42,700

5,135

5,500

6,405

5,135

5,500

Total 91,300 53,335 17,040

Table 4.2. Annual and summer water demand for the year 2001

No Item Water demand (Mm3)

Annual requirement Summer requirement

1

2

3

4

5

Domestic use

Birds and animals

Industry

Soil toxicity removal

Irrigation

1,226

438

6,400

5,000

13,665

809

203

3,200

3,500

13,665

Total 26,729 21,377

(Source )

The State has 44 rivers, but as per the national norms, not even a single one is major. Except

the four medium rivers, the remaining 40 rivers are minor ones and the combined discharge of

them is only about onethird of that of Godavari. Monsoon flows contribute to almost 90% of the

annual yield, leaving only about 10% during the lean flow period. The fresh water structures of

the state also include 995 tanks and ponds having more than 15000 Mm3 summer storage and

numerous perennial springs. Dug wells are the major extraction structures for the groundwater

resources with a density of over 200 wells per square km. The extraction of groundwater using

borewells in the hard rock terrain and filter-point wells and tube wells in the soft rock terrains

are also the increase.

The overall supply-demand situation indicates a deficit of about 4000 Mm3 of fresh water. The

major interventions in water resources sector, such as damming the rivers, industrial intake

and outflow, construction of deep canals, irrigation, sinking of wells and pumping, river sand

mining etc. have caused serious environmental impacts. The drought and flood situation in

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Kerala is often severe. The drought in Kerala is reflected as water scarcity in summer, when

the rivers dry up and groundwater table lowers. Examination of the summer monsoon rainfall

series of Kerala for the period 1871 – 1990 indicated 20 deficient rainfall years, but the

severity of drought was reflected only since 1983. During recent drought years in Kerala, more

than 25% of the homestead open wells in the midland and highland dried up, yield of surface

water sources diminished with upstream portions of rivers dried out, rice crop, plantation and

spice crops perished and hydroelectric power production reduced, affecting more than 3

million people. Two of the major reasons for the drought are the loss of water retention

provinces such as forest regions and erosion of porous soil horizons. The flood in Kerala is

attributed to increased magnitude or intensity of rainfall and the indiscriminate reclamation of

wet lands and paddy fields. About 40% of the total area of wetlands and paddy fields in the

State (5700 km2) has already been reclaimed according to 1999 data and this turn adversely

affected the drainage courses and flood cushion, worsening the flood situation. The loss of

forest has also contributed significantly to both flood and drought alike. In the beginning of the

20th century, the state had 43% of its land area covered by thick forest which declined to about

10% badly affecting the retention and gradual release of rain water.

Irrigation

From Table 4.2, it can be seen that almost two thirds of the total water demand in the state is

for irrigation. Table 4.3 (below) gives the trends in source wise irrigated area over the years.

It can be seen from the above table that wells and other sources have a significant share in the

irrigation of the state. Also, it seems over the past few years, the irrigation scenario has

mostly remained static. A look at the crop wise irrigated area in table 4.4 (below) also

reinforces the same observation. Even in this case, except for a few crops, the irrigated area

Table 4.3

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under most other crops has mostly remained at the same level.

Groundwater

In Kerala, groundwater occurs under phreatic, semi-confined and confined conditions. The

groundwater resources are largely concentrated in the sedimentary aquifers of the coastal

regions. The groundwater resources are tapped mainly for drinking and irrigation purposes.

The ground water potential of Kerala is very low as compared to that of many other States in

the country. The state has a replenishable groundwater resource of 6841 million cubic meters.

The net groundwater availability is 6229 million cubic meters. The gross groundwater draft is

2920 million cubic meters and the net groundwater available for future use is 3221 million

cubic meters.

A district-wise analysis of ground water resources of Kerala shows that Palakkad has the higher

potential for ground water recharge (12%) followed by Thrissur (11%), Ernakulam (9%), Kannur

(8%), Kottayam (7%) and Alleppey (6.8%). Thiruvananthapuram has the lowest (4%) potential

for ground water recharge. The stage of development of groundwater is the highest in

Kasargod district (79%) and the lowest is in Wayanad (25%). The overall stage of development

in the State is 47% which is greater than the national level.

The district wise ground water balance sheet for Kerala as on 31.3.2004 is given in Table 4.5.

It shows that at a macro level, Kerala has abundant groundwater resources and adequate

potential to take care of any further development in the forthcoming decades. However, at

the micro level, there are instances where overexploitation of ground water has been noticed

and documented. This is discussed in the following paragraphs.

Table 4.4

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Ground water development is calculated in percentages and blocks are categorized into four

categories. The new nomenclature for the categorization of blocks is as follows:

a) Safe (White) : The Stage of ground water development less than 70%.

b) Semi-critical (Grey):The Stage of ground water development between 70 and 90%.

c) Critical(Dark) : The stage of ground water development between 90 and 100% and

ground water levels show long term declining trends.

d) Over exploited: The stage of ground water development more than 100% and ground

water levels show declining trends during pre and post monsoon periods.

Out of 151 blocks, 5 blocks are categorized as over-exploited, 15 as critical, 30 as semi critical

and 101 as safe. The over exploited blocks, have been notified by the State Ground Water

Authority vide its Extra Ordinary Gazette Notification as „Notified Areas‟ and they are listed

below:

Name of the Block Name of the District

Athiyannur Thiruvananthapuram

Kodungallur Thrissur

Chittoor Palakkad

Kozhikode Kozhikode

Kasaragod Kasaragod

In the Notified areas, no individual and/or agency, is expected to undertake any ground water

based activity, which will entail additional ground water draft. Institutional Credit for

financing of Drip and sprinkler sets, underground pipelines and replacement of pump sets

(without increasing the H.P) only are allowed. Any fresh ground water structures such as open

well, filter point, bore well, tube well, etc, cannot be financed. Increase in HP of the

pumpsets or the change in type of Pumpsets under the programme of replacement, deepening

Table 4.5

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of existing wells or replacement of defunct wells cannot be allowed. In case, any such activity

is proposed, the necessary written permission from the State Ground water Authority is

required.

Groundwater Quality

Groundwater quality is also a very important parameter from the environmental and health

points of view. The state of Kerala has some patches wherein quality of groundwater is of

concern. These are compiled in Table 4.6 below:

Table 4.6: Blocks in Kerala having groundwater quality issues

Parameter Blocks

Salinity: EC>3000

S/cm

Palakkad

Floride>1.5

mg/litre

Palakkad

Iron> 1 mg/litre Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kannur, Kasaragod, Kollam,

Kottayam, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta,

Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Wayanad

Nitrate>45

mg/litre

Alappuzha, Idukki, Kollam, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Malappuram,

Palakkad, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur,

Wayanad

Source: CGWB 2010

Drinking water

Drinking water systems in Kerala can be broadly classified into two categories:

a) Schemes owned and operated by the state government through the Kerala Water

Authority and local governments and

b) Family managed drinking water supply wherein individual families create their own

drinking water sources by constructing wells on their own premises and managing the

water supply by themselves. Family managed drinking water supply systems in Kerala

play a substantial role in the water supply scenario especially in rural areas.

The provision of piped water supply in rural areas is the responsibility of the State Government

and funds have been provided in the state budgets right from the commencement of first Five

Year Plan. The National Water Supply and Sanitation programme was introduced in the social

welfare sector in 1954. The states gradually built up the Public Health Engineering

Departments to address the problems of water Supply and sanitation. In 1972 - 73, the

Government of India introduced Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme to assist the

states and Union Territories with 100 percent grants in aid to implement schemes in problem

villages. Under this programme more than 450-piped rural systems were launched in Kerala.

During 1980s, as part of the National Drinking Water supply and Sanitation Decade Programme,

several projects were implemented with financial support of bilateral and multilateral

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agencies.

Over the years, the organizational set up for the implementation and management of water

supply schemes had undergone several changes. The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) came into

existence on 1st April 1984 in the place of the erstwhile Public Health Engineering Department

of the Government of Kerala. KWA is one of the main agencies responsible for the design,

construction, operation and maintenance of water supply and sewerage schemes in the whole

state. KWA has been implementing piped water supply schemes based on surface and

groundwater sources. It also executes multilateral and bilateral funded projects and

accelerated rural water supply schemes on behalf of the Government of India.

Presently, the major implementing agencies of drinking water supply schemes in the State are

Kerala Water Authority (KWA), Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (KRWSA) and

Local Self Government Institutions (LSGIs). KRWSA and LSGIs are ensuring community

participation in the implementation of water supply schemes by sharing the financial costs and

taking responsibility for management, operation and maintenance to some extent.

In Kerala, 71.77 per cent of the total population has access to drinking water as at the end of

March 2009. 69.35 per cent of the total population covered is from rural areas. Total number

of rural people having access to drinking water is 158.47 lakh, which constitutes 67.77 per cent

of the total rural population.

The increase in the number of citizens covered by water supply schemes during 2008-09 is

226240. Of this increase, 215868 are in the rural area and 10372 are in the urban area. During

2008-09, Ernakulam District had the highest rural water supply coverage (97.83%) and

Kozhikkode District had the lowest coverage (38.69%). In the case of total population covered,

Ernakulam District had the highest coverage (96.19%) and Kozhikkode District had the lowest

coverage (52.75%) of water supply in Kerala during 2008-09. District wise details of various

schemes in the state Table 4.7.

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E&S impacts connected with water resources

The major environment problems associated with water resources are flood, drought, land

slides, salinity intrusion, water logging and pollution. The hydrologic modification of welands

and over exploitation of groundwater also pose challenges in many parts of the state. The

major water quality problem associated with rivers and open wells is bacteriological pollution.

The dumping of solid waste, bathing and discharge of effluents also create problems. Low pH,

high iron etc., are common in well waters in the laterite covered midland areas. High

concentrations of fluoride over the permissible levels have been reported from certain parts of

Palakkad and Alleppey districts.

When the fresh water flow reduces during the summer, the flushing of the river system

weakens and salinity propagates more into the river interiors. It causes severe problems to

irrigation, drinking, and industrial water supply. It has been reported that saline water

intrusion in River Chaliyar during summer extends up to 24 km from the river mouth during

summer. More number of rivers is now subjected to saline intrusion during summer months.

Table 4.7

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The saline water intrusion into coastal groundwater aquifers is also a major problem, as about

70% of the population there depends on well water. The localised saline water intrusion also

occurs as a result of excessive pumping from wells.

A number of industries situated on the banks of rivers and backwaters empty their effluents

into the water bodies. As a result, several estuarine and river systems in Kerala are now

hotspots of heavy metal pollution. For example, the effluent discharge from ten major

industries to Kochi estuary is about 57000 m3 per day. The quantum of pollution caused by the

discharge of untreated sewage into wetland system is also alarming. A major source of

pollution of Vembanad Lake is the domestic sewage generated in the urban areas of Alappuzha

and Kochi. About 10,000 people are added every year to the urban population of the city of

Kochi alone. Kochi city generates about 2550 million litres per day of wastewater that enters

the lake directly through major canals. The pollution load of Kochi Corporation is reported to

be 1,96,000 kg/day of BOD. The total dissolved solid content near a sewage discharge site in

Kochi estuary was as high as 54000 mg/l. It has been reported that the Vembanad estuary

annually receives residues of about 25000 tones of fertilizers and 500 tones of highly toxic

pesticides from Kuttanad region alone (Anon, 1989). The presence of DDT in Pampa river (4000

ng/l), lindane in Thanneermukkam (6000 ng/l) and endosulphan in Vembanad lake (122 ng/l)

and Manimala river (1114 ng/l) are also of serious concern. High content of particulate and

dissolved mercury concentrations, presence of lead, cadmium, zinc etc are reported from

water and sediment samples of Kochi and Veli.

Coconut husk retting is considered an important source of organic pollution in the water bodies

of Kerala. As a result of retting, large quantities of organic substances like pectin, petosan,

fat and tannin are librated into the water by the activity of bacteria and fungi. Decomposition

of pectin results in the production of sulphides, characterized by hydrogen sulphide with

strong foul smell. The polyphenols released from coconut husk during the process of retting

interferes with microbial activity. Anoxic conditions, excess hydrogen sulphide and increased

turbidity drastically reduce the primary productivity of the lake. Investigations of the retting

zones show high organic content, high BOD (513.7 mg/l), low oxygen values (0.05ml/l) and

high sulphides (4.97 mg/l)m which converts productive portion of the lakes to non-productive

anoxic areas leading to devastation of bottom fauna. The retting yards also act as breeding

grounds for the mosquitoes, which act as a vector for filariasis.

When excess nutrients are available in water bodies through various sources and due to over

fertilization, exorbitant growth of aquatic plants takes place, which the system is not in a

position to support. Thus, it exceeds the supporting capacity of the environment and

consequently, problems of various types will creep in. Dead plants settle down and lead to

siltation and shallowing of the water body. For the bacterial decomposition of plant debris,

oxygen will be extracted from the medium resulting in depletion of oxygen in the system. Many

of the lake systems of Kerala are facing intense weed growth resulting out of high degree of

eutrophication, leading to slow death of such water bodies. .

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The groundwater gets contaminated by overflow/seepage of sewage/infiltration of human

excreta from latrine pits, especially in coastal plains where the density of wells and toilet pits

are very high and located close to each other. The number of dug wells in the State is

projected to be about 40,00,000 and about 95% of the 6.59 million households have toilets.

The possibility of cross contamination of wells from the toilet pits is very high. It is found that

inconsiderate pumping from dug wells depletes the groundwater level and yield leading to

drying up of the wells over the years. It is more pronounced in lateritic terrain covering over

60% of the total land area of the state. The wells located on the banks of rivers subjected

indiscriminate sand mining or deep cut irrigation canals are also subjected to such adverse

effects.

The high rate of soil erosion, debris flows and sedimentation in water bodies is a major

problem especially for tanks and reservoirs. The storage loss of reservoirs in Kerala, on an

annual basis, varies from 0.25% to 1.32%. Though this is lower compared to the major dams in

India (0.14% to 1.79%) and China (0.55% to 3.82%), it is a major concern considering the natural

vegetation in catchments. Indiscriminate mining of river sand has led to severe degradation of

the riverine ecosystem of almost all rivers of Kerala. It was indicated that about 20,000 lorry

loads of river sand was being mined per day from all rivers of Kerala. It is reported that the

extraction rate of river sand from the seven rivers debouching into the Vembanad lake is about

6 Mm3 against a replenishment rate of 0.09 Mm3 per year. Over exploitation of river sand

depletes the porous sand layer by 5 to 15 cm per year. Consequently, most of the rivers got

deepened by about 2 to 3 m over the last 15 to 20 years.

A unit land of Kerala receives about 2.5 times more rainfall compared to the national average,

but the same unit of land supports 3.6 times more population, on an average. Therefore, for

self-sufficiency, a unit land of Kerala has to produce 3.6 times more food, water and biomass

compared to the national average. It calls for intensive efforts for the conservation of land and

water on the basis of watersheds as vegetation has a major role in controlling floods and

sediment yield from the catchments and mitigating drought by maintaining soil moisture and

groundwater level.

4.2.3 Forest and Natural Habitats

The forest cover of Kerala, as per Forest Survey of India (2009) data is 44.58% of the total

geographical area which is categorized under very dense (8%), moderately dense (55%) and

open forest (37%). But as per the land use data of the state, only about 22% of the land is

under forest and forest plantation. Some 23% of the total forest area falls in Idukki district. But

the relative forest coverage is maximum in Wayanad (83%) and minimum in Alappuzha (2.7%).

The major forest types and their extent are Tropical wet evergreen (26%), Semi-evergreen

(23%), Tropical moist deciduous (18%), Tropical dry deciduous (2.4%), Mountain subtropical

temporate shoal (0.5%), Grasslands (0.1%) and plantations (30%). In addition, the coastal

stretch has mangrove forest area of about 420 ha. In general, 62% of the forests in the state is

under degraded condition (SoE Report-2005). The degradation of natural forests is due to

factors such as unregulated/ illegal harvest, forest fire, weeds, diversion for non-forest

purposes, soil erosion, harmful effects of management and poor regeneration. In

144




addition, the loss in continuity of forest patches, patch size and their crown density also

causes degradation. The major forest produce in the state include timber, reeds, bamboo,

sandal wood and fire wood. The quantity of timber production in 2008-09 was 50300.79 cum

(round log). The number of bamboos and reeds produced were 18.98 lakh and 186.80 lakh

respectively. The sandal wood production was 30808.6 kg.

Figure 4.4 shows the various kinds of forest cover present in Kerala:

Figure 4.4

It is evident from the figure that most of the forest in Kerala is open forest or moderately

dense forest. Coverage under dense forest is very low at around less than 4%. The district wise

forest cover for Kerala is given in Table 4.8

Source: State of Forests Report 2007

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There are 16 wild life sanctuaries, 5 National parks, one community Reserve, four elephant

reserves and two biosphere reserves in the State. The total area under the protected area

network comes to about 24 % of the total forest area of the State. It is higher than the national

average. The Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala is one of the best managed tiger reserve in the

country, with the forest dwellers on its fringes actively assisting the official machinery in the

conservation efforts. The state has also taken various initiatives in the recent past such as

declaration of a buffer zone of area 148 km2 around the Silent Valley National Park, adding 148

km2 of reserve forest from Ranni Forest Division to Periyar Tiger Reserve as critical tiger

habitat, declaring Parambikulam Wild Life Sanctuary as a Tiger Reserve, notifying an area of

110 km2 area in Kozhikode District as Malabar Sanctuary and declaring a special sanctuary for

national bird, peacock at Choolannur in Thrissur district. In addition, an area of 150 ha at

Kadalundi in Kozhikkode district was declared as community reserve for supporting mangroves.

There has been large-scale deforestation and conversion of forest area in certain regions. The

topographical maps available since 1900 and LANDSAT images (1973 and 1983) indicate a

substantial decline in forest vegetation cover over the years (Chattopadhyay, 1985). In 1905,

the forest vegetation was 44.4% of the total area which declined to 27.7% by 1965, to 17.1% by

1973, and to 14.7% by 1983. However, the actual forest area that sustains forest biodiversity

and functions of forest ecosystem is only less than 8% of the total area (Satishchandran, 2002).

A comprehensive state forest policy to address the specific problems and issues related to the

conservation of forests and biodiversity of the state as well as the livelihood needs of the

forest development communities has been formulated during 2007. The Forest Management

Policy of the state encompasses technology improvement, bio-diversity conservation and

development of partnership with the forest dependent communities and fringe dwellers.

4.8

146




Special thrust is also given for protecting species of plants and animals.

The Westem Ghat region is one of the 25 biodiversity hotspots in the whole world.The state

contains more than 4500 species of flowering plants of which 1500 taxa are endemic in nature.

There is also rich faunal wealth in the state. The wealth of genetic diversity of the state in the

form of domesticated crops or breeds of animals together with their wild relatives is not fully

documented. But it is considered to be very rich as more than 74% of the land area is under

various crops protected under distinct micro-watershed boundaries. However, they are under

severe stress due to the degradation of native agri-ecosystems, large conversion of agricultural

land, introduction of exotic crops, mechanised farming etc causing major loss of indigenous

agriculture and domesticated biodiversity. There are 102 species of mammals, 476 species of

birds, 169 species of reptiles, 89 species of amphibians and 202 species of fresh water fishes,

reported from Kerala. Among the mammals, 12 taxa are endemic to western ghats of which 6

are vulnerable, 3 are endangered and 1 is critically endangered. A unique and huge diversity of

bird fauna is also found in the state. Nearly, 25% of the Indian avifauna is recorded from the

state, of which nearly 150 species are located in the coastal stretches. The avifauna of the

state includes resident species (228 nos), winter visitors (94 nos), resident and local migrants

(14 nos), accidental and exceptional stragglers (4 nos) and uncertain identifications (136 nos).

Of the known species of birds in Kerala, 18 are endemic to the Western Ghats. Of the 169

reptile species of Kerala, 59 are endmic to western ghats and 9 are endemic to Kerala. Among

these, 26 species are vulnerable, 22 are endangered, 1 is critically endangered and one is

extinct (saltwater crocodile). Among the 89 species of amphibians reported from Kerala, 57

are endemic to the western ghats and 9 to Kerala. Among these, 35 are under vulnerable

category and 11 are endangered. Out of the 202 species of fresh water fishes recorded from

Kerala, 79 are endemic to western ghats and 42 are restricted to Kerala waters. Among these,

24 species are threatened and 10 are most threatened. It is also important to note that among

the 42 endemic species of Kerala, 13 are reported to be critically endangered. There are

roughly 6000 species of insects of which 20% is endemic to the state. The coastal waters of

Kerala is also characterized by rich marine faunal diversity. The high density of population

with limited natural resources excerts significant pressure on the environment of the State.

When it is combined with the numerous pockets of ecologically fragile areas and biodiversity

hot spots, it assumes greater significance.

4.2.4. Agriculture

The climate and topography in Kerala is conducive to varying crop types, such as, coconut and

rice in the sultry lowlands, rice, tapioca, banana, arecanut, coconut, pepper, cashew and

rubber in hot humid midlands and tea, coffee and cardamom in the cool subtropic highlands.

Agriculture is practiced in over 55% of the geographical area. The micro ecosystems are such

that the valleys with near waterlogged conditions for most part of the year are seen

juxtaposed with dry hilltops decked with densely canopied trees.

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Figure 4.25

10

15

20

25Share of Agriculture & allied

sector in GSDP (%)

The agricultural income in Kerala during 2007-08 indicated a decline of 5.70 per cent in

growth. The share of agriculture and allied sectors in GSDP indicated a continuous decline in

the state (see Figure 4.2). The share was only 11.90 per cent during 2008-09. Kerala has a

diverse land use and cropping pattern. The

land reforms introduced in the State brought in

radical and comprehensive institutional

changes leading to drastic transformation in

the land holding pattern. This has resulted in

shift in the land use pattern.

Considering the characteristics of soil,

drainage/wetness, erosion, runoff etc., Kerala

has 18 land capability subclass associations of

five broad land capability classes, namely Good

cultivable land, Moderately good cultivable

land, Fairly good cultivable lands, Well suited for forestry or grazing and Land suited only for

wildlife and recreation (KSLUB, 1995 and 2002). Only about 37% of the area of Kerala is

suitable for irrigation with certain limitations.

There has been significant change in land use over the years. The State conceived and

implemented a progressive Land Reforms Act with an objective of sustainable use of all

productive land through the involvement of the entire population by distributing land to the

landless. Over the last two decades, there is a decline in agricultural land use. Land use

changes are manifested, generally, as change in cropping pattern. The changes in crop area

and production of some of the important crops grown in Kerala are shown in Table 4.9.

Out of a gross cropped area of 27.02 lakh ha. in 2008-09, food crops comprising rice, pulses,

minor millets and tapioca occupy only 12.05 per cent. Kerala state which had a low base in

food production is facing serious challenges in retaining even this meager area. Kerala

agricultural economy is undergoing structural transformation from the mid seventies by

switching over a large proportion of its traditional crop area which was devoted to subsistence

crops like rice and tapioca to more remunerative crops like coconut and rubber. The area

under rice has been declining consistently over the last several years, but the pattern appears

to be reversing (see tables 4.9 and 4.10). The area under commercial plantation crops in

general and rubber in particular has increased considerably during the last two decades (see

table 4.11). The index of food grain production declined by 10.7 points and non-food grains

declined by 6.84 points. Even though there was a decline of index of non-food grain area,

index of area under plantation crops increased by 1.83 points in 2008-09.

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Table 4.9. Changes in crop area and production, Kerala, 1961-62 & 2008-09

Sl

No

Crop Area (ha) Production (Tonnes)

1961-62 2005-06 %

variation

1961-62 2005-06 % variation

1 Rice 7,53,009 2,34,265 -69 9,88,150 5,90,241 -40

2 Tapioca 2,36,776 87,278 -63 16,18,713 27,10,934 67

3 Coconut 5,05,035 7,80,500 55 3,247mn 5,763mn 77

4 Pepper 99,887 1,75,808 76 26,550 40,641 53

5 Cashew 55,051 52,875 -4 84,449 42,274 -50

6 Rubber 1,33,133 5,17,475 289 24,589 7,83,485 3086

7 Pulses 43,546 3,943 -91 16,889 2,982 -82

8 Ginger 12,050 5,578 -54 11,185 23,380 109

9 Turmeric 4,847 2,754 -43 4,267 6,292 47

10 Banana 42,693 53,516 25 55,443 4,27,604 671

11 Coffee 18,807 84,696 350 8,145 57,200 602

12 Tea 37,426 36,557 -2 37,428 51,726 38

(Source : Dept. of Economics and Statistics, 2007; State Planning Board, 2010)

Table 4.10

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Several initiatives have been taken by the Government in recent years for promotion of

cultivation, in general, and rice, in particular linking the agriculture department, local

governments and Kudumbasree units of the State Poverty Eradication Mission. It includes

Padasekharam based action plans linking credit facility, input support, water management,

insurance, procurement and supplementary income sources. „Harithashree‟, the lease land

farming promoted by the State Poverty Eradication Mission, Kerala, through „Kudumbasree‟,

has helped women farmers to stay on in agriculture for their livelihood. The major crop

cultivated by the Kudumbashree group is Paddy (29% of area) followed by Plantain (25% of

area), vegetables (15% of area) and Tapioca (15% of area) during 2008-09 under the lease land

farming. A total area of 27,269 Ha have been brought under lease land farming as per the data

available for 2008-09. The State has also developed a strong network for supplies and services

which include Krishi Bhavans in all the Grama panchayats for transfer of technology and

organising agricultural services. Planting material delivery system has been developed which

includes 33 state seed farms, 10 district farms, 10 special farms and 8 coconut nurseries. The

paddy seed farms and the District Agricultural Farms are under the control of the District

Panchayats for facilitating appropriate seed planning at the grass root level. There has also

been increased effort for promoting organic agriculture including preparation of an organic

agriculture policy. This will improve the production of organic tea, rice, vegetables, pepper

etc which are done in a small scale at present.

4.2.5 Animal husbandry

Livestock sector in Kerala is extremely livelihood intensive and a major contributor to the

Table 4.11

150




agricultural GSDP of Kerala to the tune of 40%. Cattle population in Kerala which was 33.96

lakh in 1996, 21.22 lakh in 2003 (see Table 4.12) and 17.19 lakh in 2006. The crossbred cattle

population was 67% during 1996, 82% in 2003 and 93% in 2006 of the total cattle population.

Contribution of Kerala to national milk production was 2.4 percent during 2003-04 declined to

2.1 per cent in 2008-09. The gap between the production and requirement of egg is also

increasing at an alarming rate. Concerted efforts of the State to increase the egg production

have begun to show signs of improvement. Egg production which was 1199 M.Nos in 2007

increased to 1379 M.Nos in 2008 and to 1507 M.Nos. in 2009; an increase of 26 percent over

2007. Though meat production is increasing over the years, it cannot cater to the demand

fully.

In Kerala there are 3445 dairy co-operatives including 2646 Anand pattern societies. The newly

registered Societies during 2008-09 is 122. Of the 22 dairies functioning in the State 12 are in

the Co-operative Sector (Milma) and handles 9.90 lakh litres of milk/day, 14 chilling plants,

two cattle feed plants, a milk powder plant, an established training centre and 5000

distribution outlets. MILMA represents more than 8.11 lakh dairy farmers who have organised

2646 Anand Pattern Cooperative Societies. The remaining 10 are run by private/charitable

societies which handle 64000MT milk per annum. There are also about 25 small dairies which

are not registered and they handle 10000 litres of milk/day.

The per capita availability of egg is very low at 41 eggs/year and poultry meat is 0.9 kg/year

against the world average of 147 eggs and 11 kg poultry meat/year in the country. Government

of India has set a target for achieving production of over 52 billion eggs by 2011-12, at a

growth rate of 4.3 per cent. The poultry rearing on commercial lines is largely confined to

broiler production. In Kerala, the egg production which reached 2054 million in 1999-2000

continuously declined till 2005-06, but began to increase in 2006-07 and that trend is

maintained in succeeding years. Backyard poultry system has good potential in the state.

Around 8-10 lakh chicks are being introduced every year in the state.

India is endowed with more than 11 per cent of worlds‟ livestock population comprising a

Table 4.12

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variety of meat animals such as buffaloes, goat, sheep, pigs, cattle and poultry. The per capita

animal protein availability is about 10g against world average of 25g. The minimum

requirement targeted is 20g per capita/day of animal protein of which 4g will come from

meat. The estimated demand for meat would be 7.7 million tonnes against the present

production of 5.7 million tonnes. Meat production in Kerala comprises of beef, mutton, pork

and broiler chicken. Out of this, beef is almost entirely from the culled animals brought from

the neighbouring states. The rearing of goat and pig is concentrated in selected pockets. As in

the case of poultry, meat production under stall-fed condition in general is not economical in

Kerala. However, there is scope for fostering this activity in selected areas largely by utilising

the bio wastes available. The annual production of poultry meat shows a continuous decline

from 32704 tonne (2004-05) to 19268 tonne (2008-09) whereas the non-poultry meat shows an

increase from 162567 tonne (2004-05) to 181103 tonne (2008-09).

There is no authentic data regarding the number of cattle and poultry slaughtered in the State

and hence the total value and quantity of meat produced in the state not accessible. As per

survey conducted by the Dept. of Economics and Statistics in 2006, there are 4904 slaughter

houses in Kerala of which the authorised slaughter houses were only 1490 (30.38%. Also of the

total 6489 poultry stalls registered were only 2124 (32%). A wide gap is existing between the

requirement and production of animal products. A comprehensive strategy needs to be put in

place to augment production of major livestock products in the state.

In order to reduce morbidity and mortality, better health care efforts are being taken through

a network for veterinary health care now in the State comprising 210 Veterinary hospitals, 883

veterinary dispensaries, 47 veterinary poly clinics, 14 District Veterinary Centres, 9 mobile

hospitals/dispensaries at district level, 13 district level clinical labs, four diagnostic labs and

other related health care institutions. The state is implementing programme for Foot and

Mouth disease control. Brucellosis, Helminthiasis, worms and other internal parasites are also

threat to the livestock wealth of the State. The reports of minor attacks of major diseases like

Anthrax, and Hemorrhagic Septicemia are also reported. The State has eradicated the dreadful

disease of Rinderpest and no outbreak was reported after 1994. Among the other diseases the

major one affecting cattle, buffaloe, goat, pig and poultry are digestive system disorders (34%

of the total cases), parasitism (40%), reproductory disorders (5%) etc. According to report on

Animal Disease Surveillance Scheme, 2006 the economic loss due to various diseases arrived at

Rs.620.94 Cr. i.e., 23% of total worth of Livestock population in State. Of the total loss, 66% is

for cattle.

4.2.6 Fisheries

India has been a major contributor to the world marine fish production and second largest

producer of inland fish. The west coast was the highest contributor among regions and Kerala

among states (21%) followed by Gujarat (19%). Presently, fisheries and aquaculture contribute

1.07% to the national GDP and 5.3% to agriculture and allied activities. Fisheries sector

contribute 3% of the economy of Kerala State. The fishing Industry occupies an important

position in the economy of Kerala and its share in the national marine fish production is about

20-25%. The water resources of this state comprise of a coastline of 590 km length

152




having a continental shelf area of the sea adjoining the state. The Inland water bodies of

Kerala comprising of 44 rivers (85000 ha) 53 reservoirs (44289 ha) and 53 back waters and

other brakish water bodies (65213 ha) also play a major role in the fishery sector. The polders

of Kuttanadu having a water spread of 35000 ha and 17000 ha of kole lands of Thrissur are also

very ideal for various aquaculture development activities. The estimated fisher folk population

of Kerala during 2008-09 is about 11.33 lakh, of which 77% dwells in the coastal area and the

rest in the inland sector.

Kerala is a coastal state and is bordered on the West by the marine flora and fauna rich

Arabian sea. The Kerala Marine Fisheries Regulation Act was enacted with a view to enforce

strict regulatory measures following the induction of more number of crafts and consequent

increase in the level of unrestricted fishing. According to this Act, the inshore area coming

within the depth range of 50 meters has been demarcated for fishing by the traditional

fishermen using country crafts and the area beyond the limit in the economic zones can be

utilised by motorized boats and large vessels. As this restriction is not being strictly followed,

monsoon trawling has been banned as a preventive measure. The ban on monsoon trawling has

been in force from 1980 onwards.

Marine fish landing in the state during 2008-09 was 5.83 lakh tonnes and showed an increase of

8% over the previous year. The maximum sustainable yield was estimated about 6.99 lakh

tonnes. The fish catches from the Kerala coast include more than 300 different species, the

commercially important number is about 40 only. The high value species among the fish

catches are still few; prominent among them are Seer fish, Prawn, Ribbon fish and Mackerel.

High value fish like coastal tuna and oceanic tuna registered a growth of 23% and 39%

respectively. During 2008-09 the catch of Ribbon fish was 16118 metric tonnes and penaeid

prawn was 49351 metric tonnes. The quality of these high value species in the total catch

ultimately decides the income of the fishermen. Oil sardine accounted for the major share of

landings (71%), heavy landing of juvenile oil sardine in ring seine was also recorded. The catch

of Oil sardine was 156511 MT during 2008-09, the most important variety consumed mainly by

the poorer sections of the society exceeded the potential in recent years. The marine fishery

resources of the state have almost attained the optimum level of production. The inland fish

production reached peak share of 13% of the total fish production of the state during 2000-01

and thereafter declined slightly. During 2008-09, the share of inland fish production to the

total fish production of the state was 12.59%. The current level of Inland fish production is

about 0.83 lakh tonnes/year

District wise data for marine fish landings in Kerala for the year 1998 are given in Table 4.13.

More recent but aggregated data for the whole state for marine fish ladings as well as inland

fish landings is provided subsequently in Tables 4.14 and 4.15.

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Table 4.13

154




Table 4.14 Species wise composition of Marine fish landings in Kerala (2004-2005 to 2006-2007) (Tonnes)

Source: Directorate of Fisheries

Table 4.15 Species-wise Inland Fish Production in Kerala (2003-04 to 2006-07)

Sl.No Species 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07

Production % Production % Production % Production %

1 Prawns 16,136 21 16,334 21 14,812 19 16,226 20

2 Etroplus 4,510 6 4,458 6 4,626 6 4,452 6

3 Murrels 3,657 5 4,133 5 4,287 6 4,081 5

4 Tilapia 7,739 10 7,490 10 7,965 10 7,555 10

5 Catfish 4,359 6 4,740 6 4,922 6 4,484 6

6 Jew Fish 2,795 4 2,765 4 2,871 4 2,745 3

7 Others 37,083 48 36,531 48 38,497 49 39,564 50

Total 76,279 100 76,451 100 77,980 100 79,110 100 Source: Directorate of Fisheries

Sl.No Species 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07

1 Elasmobranchs 3,044 3,159 3,074

2 Eels 148 168

3 Cat Fish 154 168

4 Chirocenrtrus 258 265

5. a Oil Sardine 1,72,754 1,49,949

b Lesser Sardine 98,303 65,268 2,14,773

c Amchorilla 35,312 30,167 33,853

d Trissocles 2,308 3,175

e Other Clupeids 12,791 15,533

6 Saurida&Saurus 5,916 5,551 6,158

7 Hemirhamphus&Belone 642 691

8 Perches 30,437 30,400 32,971

9 Red Mullets 1,616 1,676

10 Polynrmides 21 67

11 Sciaenides 8,992 9,887 8,232

13 a Caranx 25,419 26,987 25,258

b Chornemus 1,049 985

c Othetr Carangids 24,171 20,766

14 Leiognathus 5,136 5,306

15 Lactrious 3,907 3,525

16 Pomfrets 1,393 1,501

17 Mackerel 43,017 44,202 45,904

18 Seerfish 2,371 2,475 2,648

19 Tunnies 11,208 11,923 12,248

20 Sphyraena 1,582 2,094

21 Mugil 29 42

22 Soles 8,061 13,951

23 a Penaeid Prawn 53,402 48,006

b Non Penaeid Prawn 3,315 1,738 56,779

c Lobsters 0 398

d Crabs 3,418 4,515

e Stomatopods 332 9,547

24 Cephalapoods 15,939 14,203

25 Miscellanious 6,761 14,948 100,988

TOTAL 6,01,863 5,58,913 5,61,028

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The Tsunami of 2004 caused extensive damage in Southern regions of India affecting a total of

2260 km of coastline. In Kerala, Fisherfolk were affected along 250 km of coastline. The

disaster had damaged the infrastructure, assets, outputs, and services and disrupted the

economic activity in the coast of Kerala. In order to rehabilitate and reconstruct public and

community based infrastructure and restore the livelihood of the affected population

Government of Kerala with the support of Government of India have formulated Tsunami

Emergency Assistance Project (TEAP) and Tsunami Rehabilitation Programme (TRP). The

livelihood programme has contributed a lot in the social empowerment to the coastal people

especially the fisherwomen of coastal Kerala and this will remain as a strong basement blocks

by a sustainable livelihood development programme for the coastal Kerala.

There are 9 completed fishing harbours in the state and the works of other 10 harbours are

progressing. The completed fishing harbours are Thangassery, Neendakara, Kayamkulam,

Munambam, Beypore, Puthiyappa, Chombal, Moplabay, Azheekal. There are 38 fish landing

centres in the coastal zone of Kerala. Out of this 15 landing centres are for traditional

fisheries.

4.2.9 Sanitation & Waste management

Kerala raised to the need of community sanitation efforts through its basic strength of social

capital. Kerala achieved the distinction of being the first State to fully do away with the

dehumanizing practice of scavenging as a culmination of people‟s movement for basic human

dignity. The history of sanitation in Kerala stride out from 1920 when the Maharaja of

Travancore initiated a move for sanitation with simple squat pits without running water in

selected pockets of his kingdom. From the late 50‟s, Kerala led the nation in the provision of

household toilets through the Environmental Sanitation Programme (ESP). In the initial days,

through successful campaign, single leach pit latrines with water seal bowls known as ESP

latrines were constructed on an extensive scale. Later under the Central Rural Sanitation

Programme launched in 1986 and People‟s Plan launched in 1996, the coverage increased

manifold reaching 96% as per the latest estimate (NFHS- 3rd round: 2005), the highest in the

country and far above the national average of 44.5%. It is also significant to note that the

coverage is more or less same in urban areas (98.3%) and rural areas (94.9%), showing the

equitable spread. Correspondingly, there has been substantial improvement in personal

cleanliness, home sanitation, food hygiene, safety of drinking water, solid and liquid waste

management and overall environmental scenario. Thus, 869 out of the 999 Village Panchayats

in the State have won the prestigious national award of Nirmal Grama Puraskar. It highlights

the fact that at least 87% of the province is free from open defecation, the schools and

balwadis are provided with toilet facilities and an overall cleanliness prevail in the area.

Historically, Kerala has been ahead of others in providing toilet facilities to schools and

balwadis. The state is also the acknowledged leader in the country in reduction of water borne

diseases and sanitation-related vector-borne diseases like malaria and filaria. These successes

have contributed to the high human development of the State. Though the rich natural

resource diversity and natural resources have contributed to the achievement, the dynamism

has been achieved mainly through the literacy, public action, responsive state

156




Government and vibrant Local Governments. In general, the population has a natural instinct

for maintaining cleanliness. The homestead habitation practice, rich vegetation surrounding

the residences, secured drinking water and sanitation facilities, etc can be seen as reflections

of societal instinct for cleanliness in Kerala. During the 80s and beginning of 90s, Kerala

experienced very massive campaigns for total literacy. This has opened up various avenues of

learning and inspired self-confidence and wisdom and lead to intensive interventions in sectors

like sanitation by pooling resources. The initial phase of decentralization, especially the

coordinating efforts of District Panchayats, enabled significant progress. Since then, sanitation

has been a priority sector for local governments. Thus, by the time the Total Sanitation

Campaign (TSC) was launched in the country, the state had precise target, strategy and

approach in the sector. Towards the nineties, the issue of solid waste has come up appreciably

in the major urban centres of the State. Some of the cities like Thiruvananthapuram and

Kozhikkode initiated action for collection and disposal of wayside accumulation of solid

wastes. By the end of the decade, both these cities initiated actions for establishing

composting plants as a strategy for managing biodegradable municipal wastes.

In order to push sanitation as an important agenda in the development discourse of the State,

sustained local action through the local governments involving citizens, elected leaders,

officials, professionals, activists and students was the strategy adopted. In order to implement

the strategy, a mission approach was adopted in the beginning of 2000. Accordingly, the Kerala

Total Sanitation and Health Mission was formed to focus on rural areas and Clean Kerala

Mission was formed to attend the solid waste management requirements. These missions were

essentially conceived as enablers to the local governments especially for providing technical

and monitoring support. As a result, there has been significant coverage in various sanitation

components. The temporal progress in toilet coverage since 1991 is given in Table 4.16. Similar

progress has also been achieved in providing toilet facilities in Schools and Balwadis (Table

4.17). The implementation of TSC since 2001 has further improved the coverage. The target

and achievement of various components envisaged in TSC is given in Table 4.18.

Table 4.16. Household latrine coverage: Access to Sanitation facilities

Time Line 1991(1) 1995(2) 2001(3) 2005(4)

Rural households with toilet (%) 44 73.4 81.3 94.9

Urban households with toilets (%) 73 90.0 92.0 98.3

Source – (1) Census of India, 1991, (2) NSSO 1995 (3) Census of India 2001 (4) NFHS 3rd round - 2005

Table 4.17. School toilet coverage (2005)

Item LP UP HS Total

Number of Govt. schools 2565 960 986 4511

Number of schools having toilets 1785 759 790 3334

Percentage of schools having toilets 69.59 79.06 80.12 73.90

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Table 4.18. Progress of TSC- Target and Achievement (2010)

No Components Target Achievement Percentage

1 Individual House Hold Latrines 1073742 1098320 100

2 School Toilets 3600 3570 99

3 Anganwadi Toilets 4957 4464 90

4 Community Sanitary Complex 1090 872 80

In the coastal areas, particularly, it is estimated that about one million m3 sewage is generated

per day and about 30000 m3 of this reaches the surface water bodies in the coastal areas in the

State. This quantity of sewage contributes about 7000 kg of BOD load into the coastal water

bodies (KSPCB, 2002). This estimate by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board is based on

1991 census updated to 2002 using the average decennial population growth rate of 10 %. On

an average, 33% of the households in the coastal area are without any sanitary facilities and it

is estimated that 10% of the sewage generation from those reaches the coastal water bodies

(KSPCB, 2002). District wise data on sewage generation in the coastal areas of Kerala are given

in Table 4.19.

The Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management got a fillip in the state through the setting up of

9

158




Clean Kerala Mission in 2003. This was to enable, primarily the Urban Local Governments

(ULGs) and secondarily the rural local governments (RLGs), to tackle the increasing solid waste

accumulation in compliance to the Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2000

as well as the provisions in Municipal and Panchayati Raj Acts. Consequently, appreciable

progress was achieved in the MSW management sector (Table 4.8). There are also certain best

practices developed in the sector.

Table 4.18 Progress in municipal solid waste management sector

No Item Total %

1 No of ULGs having land for MSW management 55 95

2 No. of ULGs with MSW management system in place 38 66

3 No. of ULGs where MSW management system is being developed 20 34

4 No. of RLGs with MSW management system 103 10

5 No. of RLGs where MSW management system is being developed 125 13

Though the state could address effectively the first generation issues with respect to human

excreta disposal, there are serious second generation issues of water pollution. The high

density of population in

homestead type of

habitation poses

technological issues. The

basic standard of living in

the state is relatively high

and therefore, the level of

solid and liquid waste

generation is high even in

rural areas. The magnitude

of land, water and air

pollution is high leading to

dwindling environmental

assimilative capacity.

Consequently, the disease

burden in increasing as can

be understood from Figure 4.4. Therefore, there is an immediate necessity of upgrading the

environmental management systems especially for waste generation hotspots. These include

solid waste management facilities, improved slaughter houses, facilities for treating septage

and common engineered landfills.

The state has developed specific action plans for tackling the issues in sanitation sector and

placed an institutional framework with professional competence.

A sectoral status study on MSW management in Kerala indicates that the total MSW generation

in the state is about 8300 tpd (Table 4.20). These studies indicated that 70-80% of the total

580000

600000

620000

640000

660000

680000

700000

720000

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Dis

ea

se

s

0

50

100

150

200

250

De

ath Cases

Death

Figure 4. 1: Disease Burden

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Chapter 4



waste generated is biodegradable in nature and these putrescible waste needs to be managed

within 24 hours. 13% of the waste is generated by the five City Corporations, 23% by the 53

Municipalities and the rest by the 999 Gram Panchayats. Though nominal facilities are provided

in 38 Municipalities, there are gross inadequacy in terms of capacity and abatement of

pollution. There are also issues with respect to plastic discards, e-waste and engineered

landfill. The management of plastic discards and e-waste are proposed to be handled by

establishing Resource Recovery Centres for disposing the reusable, and outsourcing the

disposal of the hazardous part.

Table 4.20. Waste Generation in Kerala

Local Governments Population 2001

Per capita

waste

generation (g)

Waste generation

per day

2001

(tpd)

2006

(tpd)

5 City Corporations 24,56,618 400 983 1,091

53 Municipalities 58,10,307 300 1,743 1,935

999 Grama Panchayats 2,35,74,449 200 4,715 5,312

Total 7,441 8,338

In the coastal areas of Kerala including panchayats, municipalities and corporations it is

estimated that about 1,677 tonnes of solid waste is generated per day assuming 300 gram per

capita in major cities and 200 gram elsewhere. This estimate is based on the 1991 census

updated to 2002 using the decennial population growth of 10%. The biodegradable solid waste

is estimated to be about 553 tonnes per day assuming that 1kg of waste contains 0.3 kg of

biodegradable waste. BOD load of solid waste reaching the coastal waters of Kerala is

estimated to be about 91 kg/ day assuming that 20% of the biodegradable solid wastes get

carried in to the inland water bodies and 10% of that reaches the coastal waters. District wise

details on solid waste and BOD load reaching the marine coastal waters are presented in Table

4.21.

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Consumption of Fertilizers and Pesticides

Annual consumption of fertilizers in Kerala is about 210,596 tonnes. Breakup of this is as

follows: N = 87,016 tonnes, P = 43,107 tonnes, K= 80,473tonnes. It is presumed that 1% of the

fertilizers applied on land reaches the coastal waters (KSPCB, 2002). About 1340 tonnes of

different types of pesticides is used for agricultural purpose in Kerala per year. An account of

various pesticides used in the State is given in Table 4.22. As in the case of fertilizers, it is

presumed that 1%of this reaches the coastal waters.

21

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Chapter 4



The MSW (Management & Handling) Rules, 2000 makes the disposal of final rejects from the

waste treatment plant in an engineered landfill (ELF) a mandatory requirement. If each

Municipality ventures to establish an ELF separately, it would require large tract of land having

no environmental constraints. Therefore, Regional ELF is suggested for tackling the

requirement. A comparative study on the land and cost requirement of individual ULB-based

ELF and Regional ELF are given in Table 4.23. Accordingly, six regional ELF are proposed for

the 14 districts according to the possible generation of waste rejects.

The Committee appointed by the Hon‟ble Supreme Court estimated that yearly, about 4 lakh

tone of mutton and 6 lakh tone of beef are produced in Kerala by slaughtering 26.5 million

goat and sheep and 3 million cattle in the State. Apart from this, pig meat is also consumed in

the state about which no estimate is available. The Committee observed that the 44 slaughter

houses available in the state are inadequate, unhygienic and not equipped with adequate

facilities as per norms for modern abattoirs. There are also issues of waste produced from

about 5.5 lakh tone of chicken being sold every year in the State. The percentage of waste

generation in slaughter house is quite high of the order of 27.5% for bovines, 17% for

goat/sheep and 4% for pig. The waste generation in chicken stall is also reported to be high of

the order of 25%. The facilities for effluent treatment as well as solid waste processing are

also almost absent in these slaughter houses. Considering the population and meat

requirement, there is a minimum requirement of 7 large abattoirs, 22 medium abattoirs and at

least 225 small abattoirs.

22

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Table 4.23 Individual ELF Vs Regional ELF Facility

No Item Individual ELF for

each UBS

Regional ELF

1 Land requirement (Ha) 2316 957

2 Cost of land (Rs. per Ha) 0.40 Crore 0.18 Crore

3 Savings on land cost (Rs) 754 Crore

4 O&M cost per ton (Rs) 555 388

5 Savings per annum on O&M (Rs) 13 Crore

The coverage of sewerage facilities, even in the City Corporations, is extremely low of the

order of 30% in Thiruvananthapuram and 5% in Kochi Corporation areas, probably one of the

lowest in the country. Even in this system, the provision for treating the black liquor is almost

absent. Rest of the Municipal and rural areas do not have even such a facility. Due to land

constraints the septic tanks have volume constraints and due to high water table scenario, the

leach pits overflows, especially during rainy season which extend up to about 150 days in a

year. Therefore, there is a requirement of clearance and removal of septage, the facilities for

which are not available anywhere in the state. The practice now is to collect the septage using

vacuum suction into tankers which are then emptied into open spaces and even water bodies,

one of the most dangerous practices. Therefore, there is an immediate necessity of installing

Sewage Treatment Plants, at least for treating the septage collected from septic tanks and

leach pits.

Considerinng these issues, the Government of Kerala formulated and launched a

comprehensive action plan namely „Malinya Mukta Keralam (Waste-free Kerala)‟ action plan in

2007 envisaging the following output to be achieved during the current plan period.

Total coverage of household sanitary latrines

Total coverage of latrines in public institutions like Anganwadis, Schools and Hospitals

Putting in place household and institutional waste treatment systems

Segregation of household and institutional waste

Developing decentralized common treatment facilities

Development of common sanitary land-fill sites for inert waste as required

Making Colonies clean and neat

Introducing litter-free public places

Plan for liquid waste management

Extending sewerage facilities

These action plans are being implemented in a time-bound manner.

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4.3 Functions of Local Governmets and their Environmental implications

The Kerala Panchatayi Raj Act and the Kerala Municipalites Act, outlines the functions of

various tiers of Local Government in detail. The functions are classified as mandatory

functions, general functions and sectoral functions. The sectoral functions include agriculture,

fisheries, animal husbandry, dairy development, minor irrigation, social forestry, small

industries, housing, waters supply, electricity and energy, education, public works, public

health and sanitation, social welfare, poverty alleviation, SC /ST development , sports and

cultural affairs , PDS, natural calamities relief, and Cooperation.

Some of these functions include interventions on ecosystem resources, and hence have

environmental implications. For instance, the activities associated with the mandatory

function „regulating building construction‟ can cause adverse environmental impact due to

resource consumption and waste generation. There are many functions which have beneficial

impacts if appropriate protocols are observed. An example for this is the the secoral

responsibility of „putting into practice water conservation‟. In many such cases, poor

implementation or service delivery can also cause adverse environmtal impact.

The environmental impacts of functions of Local Governmetns has been analysed using an

activity-impact matrix. For analysis in matrix method, causative factors or activites associated

with the function are listed. The environmental impact can be either due to the activites

related to the function per se, or poor service delivery in performing the function. In some

cases, the environmental impact of the function is not clear at this stage as it will be

subjective and depends on the boundary conditions, scale, type and duration of the activity

etc. Futher, the adverse effects due to the causative factors or activites related to the

function are enumerated. It examines whether a particular function, has no environmental

impact, or has beneficial environmental impact or has adverse environmental impact. It also

tries to qualify the level of adverse impact as High, Medium, Low or Insignificant. The

following notations are used to denote the impact type and magnitude: H for High Adverse

Impact, M for Medium Adverse Impact, L for Low Adverse Impact, I for Insignificant Impact, N

for No Impact, B for Beneficial Impact and S, if the impact is Subjective. The matrix also

outines the mitigation measures for adverse impacts or measures for positive enhamcement of

beneficial impacts wherever applicable.

The detailed activity-impact matrices for all the madatory, general and sectoral functions of

Grama panchayats, Block panchayats, District Panchayats and Municipalites is presented in

Annexure V. The projects dealing with Infrastructure, industries, intensive landuses, high

magnitude resource consumption and some of the service sectors like sanitation are found to

be the causing adverse impacts of high magnitude and intensity. This is mainly due to

inadequate compliance to the stipulated protocols and poor environmental management

measures.

The outcomes of the activity impact matrix anayisis has been incorporated into the

Environmental and Social Management Framework in Chapter 5. Based on the level and type of

impact, functions requiring environmental regulation have been classified under a

164




Control List, which indicates those activities having high or medium adverse impacts, or the

impact is subjective/unclear and hence should be subjected to a detailed environmental

assessment. This list form the basis for environmental screening of development projects,

proposed under the Environmetnal and Social Management Framework.

4.4. Environmental Analysis of Development interventions of Other Departments

Convergent at Local Level

Several of the State and Central government projects are convergent at the local level- these

are either implemted by the Local Governments, or supported by the Local Governmets, or are

implemted within the jurisdiction of the Local Government. Hence it is imperative to examine

the environmental implications of these development projects that are convergent at local

level. The activity-impact matrix method is used for environmental impact of these projects as

well. The findings from the matrix analysis have been incorporated into the ESMF outlined in

Chapter 5. A few sample SOE reports are given in Annexure VI.

4.5. Summary of Findings from the Focus Group Discussions Conducted in LSGIs

To understand the development paradigm and environmental concerns of local bodies at

various levels, structured focus groups discussions were organized in selected three tier

Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies. The discussions also helped in identifying gaps in the

existing systems, processes and tools adopted for development planning and in identifying

capacity building need for the local bodies.

In order to facilitate the Structured Focus Group Discussions, a questionnaire was prepared.

Refer to Annexure VII for the sample questionnaire. The questionnaire served as an indicative

list for collection of primary information from the local bodies. General information about the

local body was also collected to understand the profile of the local body.

The following eleven local bodies were surveyed to get a perspective of the developmental and

environmental issues of local self governments.

List of LSGIs where FGDs were conducted

Type of LSGI Location District

Grama Panchayat

Tanalur Malappuram

Thalikulam Thrissur

Kumbalanghi Ernakulam

Elor Ernalulam

Vengola Ernakulam

Block Panchayat Perambra Kozhikode

Mullassery Thrissur

District Panchayat Wynad Wynad

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Chapter 4



Municipality

Koilandy Kozhikode

Perinthalmanna Malappuram

Nedumangad Thiruvananthapuram

Five Grama Panchayats, two Block Panchayats, one District Panchayat and three Municipalities

were included in the sample. Local bodies from coastal plain areas, mid land and high land

stretches of the state were part of the sample. The surveys were conducted during April- May

2009.

The focus group discussions were attended by elected representatives as well as staff from

LSGI or other government departments who are associated with the development planning

process. More than fifty elected representatives were consulted through these discussions and

approximately 26% of them were women. One district panchayat, one block panchayat and one

grama panchayat were led by women representatives. In addition, more than 20 government

staff involved in planning and implementation of development projects participated in the

survey.

Detailed minutes of the surveys in various LSGIs is provided in Annexure VII. The findings from

the field surveys is summarised in the following section.

4.5.1. Summary of Findings

4.5.1.1. Developmental activities undertaken by the LSGI

The following table summarizes the development projects undertaken by the LSGI. This is an

indicative list of activities based on the inferences from the field survey.

166




Related to functions of LSGI State / central/ line

department projects

Gra

ma P

anchayat

Permission for building construction

Solid waste management

Health and sanitation

Soil and water conservation

Drinking water supply

Market places

Burning and burial Grounds

Various Licenses, certificates, tax

Collection of statistics

Poverty alleviation and employment- Kudumbasree

Promotion of cultivation in waste/fallow/marginal lands

Diary development

Fisheries sector development

Implementation of housing schemes

Electrification

Promotion of bio-gas

Improvement of amenities and quality of education in

Schools

Construction and maintenance of Panchayat roads

Construction and maintenance of govt buildings

Management of health centres, ICDS centres

Construction of Play grounds and cultural centres

Housing schemes: IAY,

VAMBAY, Special

Schemes for SC/ST

Employment Schemes:

SGSY, SGSY Special

Projects. NREGP,

Kudumbasree

Watershed and Soil and

water conservation:

IWDP/ Hariyali

WASH: Clean Kerala

Mission, TSP

Energy conservation:

ANERT

Blo

ck P

anchayat

Coordination with Grama Panchayats


Soil and water conservation, Watershed projects


Market places




Skill development training, local enterprise development

Improvement of amenities in schools and hospitals

Road construction and maintenance

Lift irrigation schemes

Energy conservation

Implementation of employment schemes

Implementation of housing schemes for SC/ST population

Employment Schemes:

SGSY, SGSY Special

Projects, NREGP,

Kudumbasree


water conservation:

IWDP/ Hariyali

WASH: Clean Kerala

Mission, TSP


ANERT

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4.5.1.2. Innovative approach/ projects

This section highlights a few of the initiatives from the aforementioned LSGIs which are

noteworthy for their innovativeness and could be replicated and up-scaled.

IT and Governance

Citizen Charter, Perinthalmanna Municipality:

A commendable governance initiative is the “citizen charter” prepared by the Perinthalmanna

Municipality. The citizen charter document outlines the procedure for availing a list of thirty

nine services offered by the municipality. The document also specifies the time limit for

Dis

tric

t Panchayat Coordination with Block, Grama panchayats

Promotion of agriculture

Construction and maintenance of district roads

Education

Health

SC/ST welfare

Munic

ipality

Permission for building construction


Health and sanitation

Soil and water conservation


Storm water drainage and sewerage networks

Market places, bus stands, cultural centres, libraries, town

halls


Various Licenses, certificates and tax collection

Collection of statistics

Poverty alleviation and employment- Kudumbasree

Skills development training and promotion of enterprises/

industries


Diary development


Implementation of housing schemes

Electrification , energy conservation

Promotion of bio-gas

Improvement of amenities in schools and hospitals

Construction and maintenance of roads

Construction and maintenance of govt buildings

Management of health centres, ICDS centres, hospitals and

schools

Employment Schemes:

SGSY, SGSY Special

Projects, NREGP,

Kudumbasree


water conservation:

IWDP/ Hariyali

WASH: Clean Kerala

Mission, TSP


ANERT

UIDSMT

JNURM

168




processing applications for these services. If the service is not delivered with in the specified

time limit, the applicant can bring it to the notice of Municipal Secretary and Chairman. The

citizen charter booklet was provided to all households in the municipality.

Computerisation and Governance reforms, Tanalur Grama Panchayat:

Computerisation of Tanalur Grama Panchayat was supplemented by several other initiatives to

improve the service delivery of the Grama Panchayat. The Pachayat conducted a detailed

socio economic survey , where in details of each land parcel(with details of land use, type and

use of buildings), household (details of members, occupation, asset ownership, amenities,

details of agriculture, animal husbandry, details of water supply and sanitation facilities,

income sources, birth and death in last one year, health status, details of earning members

who are working abroad, participation in Grama Sabha, details of govt schemes from which the

household has benefited) and commercial establishments/ enterprises (type , asset ownership,

details of licenses, employees etc) were collected and collated to a database. Computerisation

and automation of certain business processes was another initiative. Any citizen, who submits

a grievance or application for availing a specific service offered by the Grama Panchayat,

receives a receipt which will specify the application number and time limit for processing the

application. The status of the application and details of officials responsible for addressing the

grievance can be tracked by entering the application number in information kiosk.

Private Sector Partnerships

Investors meet, Mullassery Block Panchayat:

In the case of Mullassery Block panchayat in Thrissur district, majority of the households have

at least one earning member who is employed abroad. The Block panchayat organized an

investor‟s meet to mobilize their support for promoting small and medium enterprises in the

Block panchayat. 30 small enterprises were started with support mobilised through this event.

Partnership with NRIs and local NGO (Vikas Trust), Thalikulam Grama Panchayat :

The Panchayat has been able to successfully mobilize financial support from an NRI

businessman who hail from this Panchayat for various development interventions. Vikas trust,

an NGO floated by one of them is also complementing and supporting these interventions. The

Panchayat conducted an employability survey in the Panchayat and found that there are at

least three thousand people who need a job. The Panchayat organized job oriented training

programmes for them and 2000 beneficiaries have been employed so far. The panchayat also

mobilized additional financial resources from the trust for implementing housing schemes.

Drinking water supply by Industries, Elor Grama Panchayat:

Elor Panchayat faced severe drinking water shortage due to the pollution of ground water

caused by four industries in the Panchayat. 2144 families in 6 wards of the Panchyat are

provided with free drinking water supply by pooling in financial resources from the four

industries. The FACT‟s water treatment plant supplies treated potable water to these areas.

The fixed cost on establishing the water supply network and the recurring cost on pumping,

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Chapter 4



treating and supplying are met by these industries.

Cataract camps, Perinthalmanna Municipality:

The Perinthalmanna municipality successfully organized a campaign to identify and support the

treatment of those affected by Cataract. The project was implemented with the support of

Kudumbasree members (who facilitated the initial screening of beneficiaries),Aalsalam

hospital, (a private ophthalmic hospital in Perinthalmanna who facilitated the detailed check-

up and operations), and Rotary Club (who provided financial support for the entire

programme). 2000 people benefited from this scheme.

Resource Mobilization

Construction of bus stand cum shopping complex, Koilandy Municipality:

The bus stand cum shopping complex was constructed at a total cost of INR 6.65 crores. The

entire cost of the project was moblised by renting out the 79 shop rooms in the shopping

complex for office/ commercial spaces in advance and collecting the caution deposit. The

Municipality has constructed a public market as well. The LSG now owns approximately 6000 sq

m of built up area, which is a major source of recurring income. In the year 2007-08 , the

income from assets (rent on land and buildings, markets and comfort station, sand auction)

owned by the Municipality was INR 3,51,40,000, which is roughly 30% of the total municipal

budget.

Chairman‟s relief fund, Perinthalmanna Municipality:

When ever a major development activitey is implemented, for instance a major road, or bye

pass road, industrial park etc- the land vale in the fringe areas of the project generally

appreciates. So the Municipality is proposing to levy a one time „Development tax‟ on

beneficiaries of major projects. The money will be used for other development activities

through the Chairman‟s Relief fund.

Carbon Trading, Perinthalmanna Municipality:

As part of the Total Sanitation Project, the municipality implemented the Integrated Low Cost

Sanitation project where in approximately 800 toilets which are attached to bio gas plants,

were constructed. It is proposed to trade the carbon saving from this initiative.

Housing Scheme in Tanalur Grama Panchayat:

The project was conceptualized when the Panchayat received more applications for housing

schemes than it could possibility fund through the annual plan. The Panchayat obtained special

sanction for mobilizing additional resources through bank loan. 470 houses were constructed in

the last five years through this scheme. The Panchayat is presently repaying the principal

through annual installments from their development fund and the general purpose fund. The

interest on the loan is borne by the beneficiaries. This project was a precursor of the

ambitious EMS housing scheme mooted by state govt this year

Mobilising Technical Support

170




Inadequacy of technical support is an excuse oft-quoted for delay in development and

implementation of various development projects. But on the contrary, several of the LSGIs

mobilized technical support from with in the LSGI or from various departments or from

resource institutions of repute. To quote a few:

Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode developed the business plan for Subhiksha,

the Women‟s cooperative movement implemented by Perambra Block Panchayat.

Integrated Rural Technology Centre (IRTC) Palakkad provided technical support for

development of watershed master plan for Perambra Block.

IRTC Palakkad provided technical supported to several LSGIs for implementation of the

Solid Waste management projects

Mythri is providing technical support for the drainage and sewerage network design for

Koilandy Municipality

The inland fisheries related initiatives of Kumbalangi Grama Panchayat are supported

by ADAC.

Livelihood Enhancement and Diversification

Local Employment Directory, Perinthalmanna Municipality:

The Municipality conducted a survey to identify the local employment opportunities in the

region. For instance, the Municipality has 20 private hospitals, which can provide employment

for local population. It was found that approximately 1000 jobs are available locally. Based for

the survey, the municipality facilitated skill development programmes for gainful employment

in these sectors. 330 women have been already employed through this initiative.

Subhiksha Project, Perambra Block panchayat:

Subhiksha, is a Women Cooperative Producing Value Added Coconut Products. The project was

developed and implemented by Perambra Block Panchayat with technical support from Indian

Institute of Management, Kozhikode. The project was supported under the SGSY scheme and

had a funding of central and state contribution of INR 8 crore, INR 4 crore mobilized through

bank loans, besides the beneficiary contribution. The project has successfully established more

than 500 small units benefiting around 7000 women below poverty line. The units are engaged

in production and marketing 41 value added items based on coconut. The production chain and

activities of these units are interconnected. 23 units procure coconut directly from farmers.

Husk is taken to units dealing in mechanized fibre production and the coir pith from these

units are used for producing manure through composting. Coconut is taken to copra drier unit.

The coconut water is given to units producing squash, vinegar etc. Dried copra is handed over

to coconut oil producing units. Shell is given to units specializing in charcoal production. In

addition to selling coconut oil, a part of it is used for producing soap. Parallel to this, there

are unit which produce value added food products from coconut, like coconut pickle, jam,

candy, tender coconut cake, hair oil, wholesome tender coconut as a snowball etc. Subhiksha

has entered into an agreement with Rubco to extract virgin oil from undried coconut. In

addition, one of the units produces coconut saplings. The women‟s collectives take up door to

door marketing of these value added products.

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Chapter 4



Community Participation

Aarogya Sena, Koilandy Municipality:

Koilandy Municipality has trained a group of Community Health Volunteers or Aarogya Sena‟s at

ward level. The volunteers are involved in monitoring of preparedness level against health

hazards as well as in awareness generation programmes related to water, sanitation and

hygiene.

Jana Maithri Suraksha , Perinthalmanna Municipality:

This state level community policing initiative is being implemented in Perinthalmanna

Municipality. The project envisages the formation of people‟s committees comprising of

elected representatives and heads of educational institutions at the police station level for

implementing the scheme. The committees would help law enforcers devise location-specific

policing strategies. Beats comprising 500 to 1,000 households with a police officer of either

head-constable or assistant sub-inspector rank interacting with the members have been

formed. Any citizen can contact the beat officer for help, round the clock. There has been

considerable reduction in the crime rate in the Municipal area post implementation of this

project.

Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene

Kudumbasree in Solid Waste Management:

Solid waste collection enterprise initiated by Kudumbashree is highly beneficial not only to

solve the problem of environmental pollution, but also as a means of livelihood to the

urban/rural poor especially women, and without any additional financial burden to the urban

local bodies. For collecting waste from the households, the entrepreneurs charge Rs 30/- per

month from each household. The women entrepreneurs engaged in solid waste collection are

earning Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 per month. Now 155 Kudumbashree solid waste management

groups are in operation in 18 urban local bodies in the State. In addition to door to door

collection in Urban/ semi urban areas, units which handle waste from market places and from

meat/chicken stalls are also coming up.

Natural Resource Management

Watershed Master Plan, Perambra Block panchayat:

To operationalise the government guideline for preparation of an integrated watershed master

plan, the Perambra Block Panchayat got in touch with IRTC for technical hand holding. IRTC

conducted a ToT programme for 101 master trainers from different walks of life like farmers,

activists, politicians, students, professionals, officials and elected representatives for 4 days.

The master trainers in turn facilitated the preparation of the map delineating 46 micro

watersheds and training of selected persons from each watershed at the local level. Two

survey teams of seven persons each were formed for each micro watershed. A Watershed

Committee as formed at the level of the Village Panchayat. Community moblisation

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for watershed planning was facilitated by these filed level volunteers. This included a special

Grama Sabhas, discussion in school assemblies, banners and posters, conduct of Jala Jatha etc.

Special surveys of gullies and streams and transect walks were conducted. Intensive meetings

of Neighbourhood Groups of farmers were organized and Watershed Mahasabha constituted in

each micro watershed. Action plans for watershed based interventions were prepared. With

expert interventions in respect of agriculture, fisheries, soil conservation and special

problems, the watershed master plan was finalized. The whole exercise took 16 1/2 months. In

order to plan and implement the programmes, farmers‟ group called Karshaka Koottaima has

been formed. The plans are to be implemented converging funds from the local governments,

State Government and Central Government.

Jala Samrithi Nagaram Campaign, Koilandy Municipality:

The municipality organized “Jala samrithi nagaram” campaign for promoting water

conservation. One lakh mazhakuzhi (water recharge structures) as well as several tadayana

(check dam) were constructed. Based on the request from municipality, 11 private ponds were

handed over to LSGI to be converted to rainwater harvesting structures. Cleaning up of canals

and streams were also taken up as a priority activity. Social forestry initiatives were also

campaigned for. The concept of “jaiva veli”- compound wall with local plant varieties -was

promoted. Several other campaigns - Mazha utsavam, tiruvatira njattuvelaye swikarikkuka ,

kaliyane sweekarikkuka were orgnised to soil and water conservation practices. Studies show

that there is a 4% increase in ground water level post implementation of the water

conservation initiatives.

4.5.1.3. Environmental issues

The major environmental issues identified by the LSGIs during the survey are listed below.

Issue Root cause

Water logging Filling up of canals, ponds and wetlands affecting the natural

drainage pattern.

Siltation in canals and water bodies.

Absence of storm water drainage network

Wetland conversion Construction of roads, houses and other buildings

Solid waste management Littering in public places

Dumping of solid waste into water bodies

Problems in identifying solid waste management sites

Inadequate capacity and efficiency of collection

No facilities or inadequate capacity for processing bio degradable

waste from market places, slaughter houses, meat and chicken

stalls etc

No facility for handling plastic waste, construction debris

No facility for handing bio-medical waste

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Chapter 4



Shortage of drinking

water

Salinity intrusion in coastal areas

Ground water contamination from polluting industries

Depletion of ground water sources

Depletion and contamination of surface water sources

Inadequacy or absence of water supply network

Use of pesticides contaminating water sources

Discharge of industrial and urban waste into water bodies

Erosion Coastal erosion

Bank erosion in rivers, streams, rivulets and canals

Top soil erosion due to deforestation

Mining and quarrying Sand mining from rivers

Mining of granite and laterite

Mining of hillocks for soil

4.5.1.4. Planning and implementation of developmental activities

Development interventions are identified through needs assessments done at Grama Sabhas.

Most of the approved projects emanated from the needs articulated at the Grama Sabhas. In

general, most of the LSGIs were able to organize Grama Sabhas at the stipulated intervals. Ten

to fifteen percent participation was reported. Inadequate capacity of the Grama Sabhas and

working groups to address technical queries related to sector interventions is a lacuna.

4.5.1.5. Reasons for deviations in plan implementation

The following are the typical reasons for deviations in project implementation.

Process related:

Changes in projected number of beneficiaries – if a scheme doesn‟t attract enough

number of beneficiaries or more number of people apply for a scheme.

Delays in approval of the plan by TAG/ DPC

Inconsistency in recommendations/ guidelines/ executive orders and their suitability

for local conditions

Delays in finalization of departmental projects and fund allocation. This is extremely

important in sectors like agriculture, aquaculture etc were activities are seasonal and

timeliness of intervention is crucial.

Need for flexible guidelines while implementing pilot innovative projects and local

specific projects

Need for more devolution of power in deciding sectoral priorities and fund allocation

Lack of coordination in cases of projects implemented by other departments like

Revenue, Tourism & Irrigation departments, as well as lack of coordination between

interventions of three tier panchayats.

Too many audits and trivial audit objections

Code of conduct after the declaration of elections (national, state or local elections) or

bye-elections cause delay in implementation

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Resource related

Lack of funds

Changes in subsidy norms

Capacity related:

Inadequacy of technical support for sectoral interventions.

Dearth of adequately qualified/ trained staff has been a common grievance in both

ULBs and three tier panchayats (ex: sharing of agricultural officers/engineers/other

technical staff between Panchayats, posting of engineers from irrigation department on

deputation in village Panchayats, lack of staff with expertise in Town Planning in

Municipalities, frequent staff changes).

The Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 - തദ്ദേശ...

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