- A biodiversity management committee in Kerala’s Kasaragod is restoring a portion of a river by removing invasive plants and planting native species.
- As per a 2017 report, only about 18 percent of local bodies in India had constituted a biodiversity management committee and only about seven percent had prepared the People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR), which is the primary function of the committee.
- Kerala has 1200 BMCs and was the first state to constitute BMCs in all local self-governments, as early as 2012.
The Kasaragod district in Kerala is home to 12 rivers, of which Chithari is one of the smaller waterways to traverse its coastal landscape. Originating near the town of Iriya, Chithari flows northwards before draining into the Arabian Sea at Ajanur village in Kerala. The 25-km-long river is one of the last habitats for mangrove forests in northern Kerala. A tree-spider crab species, new to science — Leptarma biju, from the genus Leptarma — was described from the Chithari river in 2020.
“The Chithari river flows past a large paddy field where I bird regularly,” shares the convenor of the biodiversity management committee, Shyamkumar Puravankara. “We had once found a Taiga flycatcher there but never saw it again,” he says. An architect by profession and an avid birdwatcher, Puravankara is critical of the general approach to managing and conserving riverine habitats. “Citing protection of river banks, what we often see today, is the irrational construction of concrete walls. In the name of cleaning up, we apathetically cut down riverine flora such as kaitha kadukal (Pandanus thickets), which results in river bank erosion,” explains Puravankara.
In 2021, Puravankara approached the biodiversity management committee (BMC) in his panchayat to lend his hand to the local conservation efforts. When offered the chance to become the committee convenor, he assumed the responsibility with verve and passion. Led by Puravankara, the Pullur Periya Panchayat BMC was deliberating on an action plan to rejuvenate the Chithari tributary when they came across a call for proposals by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB) for river restoration, says Puravanakara. “The committee proposed a plan to conduct a biodiversity survey along the Chithari tributary and to identify and restore a patch of degraded land on its banks. The board approved the project as nobody had proposed something like that through a BMC before.”
People power
As a signatory of the historic Convention of Biological Diversity in 1992, India enacted the Biological Diversity Act in 2002 to provide for the conservation, sustainable use, and equitable sharing of biological resources in the country. The government created a multi-tier structure for its implementation, with the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) at the top, State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) for every state, and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at the local body level.
According to the Act, the primary functions of BMCs shall include conservation, sustainable use, and documentation of the local biological diversity. However, as per a 2017 report, only about 18 percent of local bodies in India had constituted a BMC, and only about seven percent had prepared the People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR), which is the primary function of a BMC. Though these numbers have improved since, BMCs constituted so far have largely remained on paper due to a lack of funding and guidance, and their non-functionality at the local level.
The state of Kerala is an exception to this rule, according to V. Balakrishnan, member secretary of the Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB). “We were the first state to constitute BMCs and prepare PBRs in all local self-governments (LSGs) as early as 2012. We are far better (in BMC governance) than other states,” he says.
Balakrishnan attributes their success to the strong panchayat raj system and the willingness of the Kerala government to implement the plans put forth by the KSBB. While all state biodiversity boards are expected to ensure skill building and capability of BMCs in their states, Kerala has been able to implement a strong network of Technical Support Groups (TSGs) — a 10-member team for each district, comprising of botany, zoology, and agriculture professors — who can guide BMCs in their activities.
Balakrishnan highlights the human resources available on the ground: energetic retirees always available and ready to contribute to BMCs, be it former veterinarians or forest and agriculture officers. “Kerala is also home to citizen scientists (such as birdwatchers and butterfly enthusiasts) like Shyamkumar (Puravankara) whom we can leverage!”
Read more: [Explainer] What is a People’s Biodiversity Register?
From planning to planting
First, the members of the Pullur Periya Panchayat BMC performed a preliminary survey of the trees, shrubs, herbs, birds, spiders, butterflies, moths, odonates, mammals, and herpetofauna along the Chithari river tributary. Following this, the committee identified a two-km stretch between the Makkaramkodu and Velloor Vayal bridges as the site for the pilot restoration project. Part of panchayat land, unscientific river management had led to heavy degradation on the site, and floods in the past had uprooted many trees. “After the survey, we took some of the panchayat ward members on a walk through the site, showing them how invasive species, such as trailing daisy (Sphagneticola trilobata), are abundant, and that they need to be weeded out first to be able to plant anew,” says Puravankara.
Awareness generation among stakeholders was one of the key goals of the project. “We wanted to involve the local citizens so that they understand the need for such efforts. The removal of invasive species on the site was done through workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS),” shares Puravankara. Pullur Periya Panchayat was the first local self-government in the state to create awareness about invasive species among MGNREGS workers. “We took a class for them on invasive plant species, and around 100 of them participated in the exercise. Hopefully, the next time they see an invasive species, they will remove it without us having to ask them,” Puravankara notes.
Devakietti, 60, from Haripuram, was one of the workers who attended the classes. “We were taught the names of invasive species and how to identify them,” she says. Following the classes, they worked for two days along the Chithari tributary to remove invasive plant species. “We were also part of the planting drive inaugurated by the collector,” she adds. The workers continue to be involved in cleaning efforts along the Chithari river throughout the year where their knowledge about invasives proves helpful.
For the next phase of the project, the committee worked with the Kanhangad Block Panchayat Agro Service Centre to prepare saplings of the 10-12 native species identified and selected for replanting. Agro service centres (ASC) are government establishments that serve as a one-stop shop for farmers in the locality. Puravankara highlights the dedicated efforts of Naveesa Thubeevi, ASC Head, Kanhangad Block, as the reason they could source native plant saplings locally. “The agro service centre worked for four to six months to curate and nurture the saplings we needed in their nursery,” shares Puravankara.
Thubeevi is delighted that she was invited to be a part of the project. “We took it as a challenge and were able to execute it well. We focused on local species such as munda (Pandanus sp.) and kaitha (Pandanus tectorius), which can hold water and prevent banks from eroding,” she says. At the same time, Thubeevi agrees it was not easy and that they had to try over and over again with some species. “We had to pick saplings of aamathali (Trema orientalis) and kallar vanchi (Rotula aquatica) from between the rocks in the river. For species like kallar vanchi, one or two out of five (saplings) would survive.”
A long, winding road
It took two years to complete the first round of planting, even though they were parallelly working on invasive species removal and sourcing saplings through the agro service centre. As per Puravankara, they will begin the next round of weeding and replanting by December, once the northeast monsoon gives way.
As for the immediate next steps, Puravankara wants to update the flora survey list. He believes many grasses and plants, especially water plants, have escaped their attention. Recently, Puravankara successfully applied for a grant with the Zoo Outreach Organisation (an NGO working on wildlife conservation in India since 1985) to develop a flora inventory along the Chithari tributary. He hopes this can lead to a commercially viable nursery that nurtures native wild plants and can cater to the needs of all restoration projects in the state.
Though the Chithari river project has been commissioned for only three years, Puravankara believes it will take another five or six years before nature can take over, and only then can they declare whether the project has been a success or not. Thubeevi is adamant they will not give up on the project even after the panchayat scheme ends in 2025. “As long as I am in office, we will continue to do what we can to protect the river,” she says.
Banner image: As a part of their awareness building goal, the BMC trains workers under the government’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to identify and remove invasive species. Image courtesy of Pullur Periya Panchayat BMC.
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