Airports, like Metro rails and industries, are symbols of any country’s progress but the Rs 2,000-crore Greenfield airport project at Aranmula in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district is threatening to wipe off all signs of the cultural history and heritage of a whole area apart from raising concerns about possible destruction of the agrarian region’s extremely fragile ecology.
The KGS Group, promoters of the KGS Aranmula International Airport ltd, had claimed that the airport needed only 500 acres of land and that there would be no ‘side-effects’, but a report of the Airports Authority of India showed that the project would hit several hills, structures of temples and churches, sacred groves, and lead to reclamation of vast tracts of paddy land.
If the recommendations are to be adhered to totally, almost all hills, hillocks, high-tension electrical lines, mobile communication towers, tall structures of the several temples and churches and sacred groves within a radius of a minimum of 10 kilometres from the airport runway would be hit.
Among the structures to be removed for smooth landing and take-off flights might be the golden flagpole of the famous Parthasarathy Temple of Aranmula, which is as tall as an eight-storey building. As reports on the AAI recommendations have now been disclosed, devotees have decided to intensify their protests against the airport project.
“What kind of a democracy is thisIJ Why is the Government so insistent that a project which the people do not want and would bring destruction to a region should be implementedIJ Till now we had only guesses and concerns but those fears are now becoming real,” said an office-bearer of the local council agitating against the airport project.
As per the recommendations, structures of at least three churches and two temples and seven sacred groves, which have been part of the cultural history of Aranmula, famous as India’s second Unesco-recognised heritage village, would be affected. “In short, Aranmula will have to become culturally and historically barren,” said the council office-bearer.
A minimum of seven hillocks that form the natural security walls of Aranmula will have to be razed down partially or fully if the recommendations are to be implemented, say experts. Apart from the razing of hills, which would lead to the eviction of hundreds of Dalit families, the report also recommends filling of the paddy fields near the project area.
The report also reportedly recommends reclamation of paddy fields for ensuring total stoppage of seeping of water and blocking, diversion or filling of canals running through the farmlands so
that the airport runway will not be threatened by water-logging or seepage. As per the present design, the runway level is said to be lower than that of the farmlands surrounding it.
Hydrologists point out that the implementation of the recommendations would lead to severe water shortage in a 10-km area surrounding the project site. This would also lead to the decimation of the clay which is essential in the making of the Aranmula Kannadi, the metallic mirror in the name of which Aranmula is known the world over.
The Aranmula airport project has been mired in controversies since its very start with corruption alleged even in the process of the first allotment of land during the rule of the previous lDF Government. Strangely, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had announced that the airport project would materialise irrespective of the people’s protests against it.
There were also allegations to the effect that Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, had considerable stake in the airport project and that con woman Saritha S Nair, main perpetrator of Kerala’s infamous solar scam, had been functioning as liaison agent among politicians and officials in the State and in the Centre for it.