A Painful Duty — MARADU!
This dates back to 2006. My grandfather entered a new house gifted by his son. A few years after that, I asked him about the feeling he had at that moment. I still remember the twinkle in his eyes talking about it. He was a farmer and had to start working in his teens. After 76 years of hardship, he stood proud of entering one of the best houses in his village.
One of the middle-class dreams of our previous generations has been a house of their own. (Un)fortunately, our dreams differ. We aspire to travel this country and the world. This aspiration saw me backpacking in South India in the summer of 2017. I particularly remember strolling in a street of Kannur district in North Kerala.
Join me on the trail back to 2006. While my 76-year-old grandfather in north Haryana was on the cloud nine for the new house of his son’s hard work, there was a bunch of people down south in Kerala building a new dream- housing societies in Maradu.
A plan of 4 housing societies standing tall on the Vembanad wetland facing Vembanad lake (longest lake in India) looked beautiful on the paper. Thanks to Maradu panchayat and ‘vision’ of the builders, the housing societies were now a reality offering the much-desired water-body facing apartments.
These apartments stand demolished on the orders of Hon’ble Supreme Court in two instalments on 11th and 13th January 2020. Justice Arun Mishra headed bench gave this judgement. He described the event as ‘A Painful Duty’.
Vembanad lake, longest in India and a Ramsar site, is one of the famous backwaters of the state under CRZ-III zone. Only agriculture and some public facilities are allowed in this zone. The purpose is to save biodiversity.
Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority took legal route after finding irregularities in allotment of the permission(s), a clear case of corruption facilitated by officials, Maradu Panchayat authority and other related parties.
While the case was in court, 2018 floods struck the state. I saw the same street flooded in media. That image ran a chill down my spine probably out of personal connection.
The concerned department reported that Vembanad lake was able to absorb 0.6 billion cubic metres of the 1.63 billion cubic metres of the rainfall. It submerged over 480 sq km area inflating to three times its size. Did this construction on the lakeside hamper with natural water flow causing imbalance? Environmentalists believe so!
Supreme Court found the mode of seeking compensation to be of no use and directed to demolish these buildings for the own good of the society. Not just that, the flat owners were to be paid 25 lakhs of compensation and demolition was to be carried at a high price with international experts. In this remarkable judgement, all the above costs are to be paid by the builders.
The buildings are no more today. However, they left a strong non-financial cost on the table. From mental harassment of the house owners to increased pollution, the cost can not be evaluated for now.
Luckily, the judiciary played a commendable role. It will not only establish fear in minds of wrongdoers but also spread desired awareness about the menace of obstructing the flow of nature.
As I conclude, I will leave you with a thought of institutional and policy failure that led to mass construction in a sensitive zone.
Think. Share. Make people Aware.
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