Feast for Thought

I had intended to post 'then and now' pictures of the river and the ambience there. Here they are. (The top three are pics taken in Jan 2008) 1. Upriver as it looks now: The view when we get down the steps from the house. (Athirappilly Falls is about 35 km east from this point, by road). It's heartening to see sand deposits building up again, but illegal mining continues under cover of darkness... 2. Downriver as it looks now: You can see blue and green upto the next bend. 3. Across the river: Friendly kids out at play 4. Six years ago in Aug 2001: Almost a private beach and sands to play on... 5. Ten years ago in Aug 1997: There was real beach, where bare legs waded comfortably into shallow water. Now 'kuzhis' - pits - under water do not let bathers get in confidently. Where once a person could stand at the centre of the river with head out of water, now only confident swimmers can venture, but cannot tread...

The Chalakudy is my 'river-in-law', but means more than a river to me. A decade ago, the banks welcomed an awed bride into the family. That bride knew the value of water, and of pristine surroundings, having grown up in the city of the Adyar, the Cooum & the Buckingham Canal. Idyllic setting: house by the river, potable water, sandy banks, greenery as far as the eye can see... In her westward journey, the river flows by the busy town of Chalakudy (Trissur district, about 75 km north of Kochi). A concerned writer laments that a seventh dam is planned at Athirappilly , where the river cascades magnificently. This, despite the fact that there are sane alternatives to generate the intended 160MW of electricity, and at much lesser cost than the dam's Rs 650 crore budget. Over the past ten years, I have been witness to a rather rapid change in the waterflow. Upstream effluents and illegal sand-mining have almost stopped the flow, the water is murky, and weeds have taken hold...