With the church spearheading the agitation against the Centre’s decision to ‘save’ the high ranges, the party has much to lose in the Lok Sabha election.
In Kerala, the Catholic Church has always been a staunch ally of the Congress- led United Democratic Front. But the unfolding battle over preserving the Western Ghats has put the church and the party on a collision course.
It all started in October, when the Centre decided to implement key suggestions of the Kasturirangan panel on Western Ghats conservation. The report had identified 123 villages in Kerala, comprising 33.72 percent of the state’s geographical area, as ecologically sensitive. Thousands of farmers cultivate spices and rubber in the Ghats and they are afraid that if the panel’s suggestions are implemented, they will be left without a livelihood.
As a majority of the farmers belong to the Catholic faith, church leaders issued a war cry through pastoral letters and organised violent protests in the high ranges. The statewide protests have gathered momentum and church leaders have openly stated that they would defeat sitting Congress MP PT Thomas in the next election if he contests again from his home constituency of Idukki.
Thomas, a church faithful, was not ready to kneel before the church leaders and termed the move as anti-Christian. The 50-year-old announced that he was ready to play the role of a sacrificial goat for saving the Western Ghats.
The Centre’s decision sparked widespread protests across the state. In the violence, two Forest Department buildings were burnt and files were gutted. Three jeeps and some other vehicles were also set afire. Later, the Forest Department named Father Saji Mangarayil of the Chembukavu parish as one of the accused who incited violence against the forest office.
Union Defence Minister AK Antony and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy are trying their best to avoid a showdown with the church and save the party’s traditional vote bank. “I have raised strong reservations against the Kasturirangan report,” says Chandy. “Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan has assured that Kerala will get a chance to present its views before notifying the panel report. We will find a solution soon.”
The chief minister visited New Delhi along with state Congress unit chief Ramesh Chennithala, but could not meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and brief him about the political fallout of the Western Ghats issue.
At least three Lok Sabha constituencies, Pathanamthitta, Idukki and Wayanad — all represented by the Congress — are going to be affected if the panel’s recommendations are implemented. All these constituencies have the maximum number of Catholic settlers who migrated to the high ranges of the Western Ghats in the early 1960s.
“It’s a do-or-die situation,” says Bishop Mathew Arackel of the Kanjirapally Syro-Malabar diocese. “We are protesting as our lives would be affected if the Kastrurirangan panel report is implemented. Hundreds of families living in the high ranges would be forced to abandon their farms. When our people are in distress, how can we sit idle?” The 69-year-old bishop fears that around 3 lakh people are going to be affected in Idukki district, and a majority of them are marginal farmers.
According to Bishop Arackel, the farmers of Idukki are not against protecting the Western Ghats. “We are the most eco-sensitive people as our daily lives are linked to nature. Without protecting the ecology, we cannot survive in our land. But there is an attempt to paint us as looters of the environment,” says the bishop, who was a former adviser to the state Planning Commission. He blames insensitive politicians for creating confusion among the people over the Kasturirangan panel report.
“How can you label farmers as anti-green? In fact, they care for nature more than the so-called green NGOs. This is a conspiracy to displace the farmers from their land.”
The bishop claims that supporters of the Save the Western Ghats campaign are recipients of foreign funds. “They are hiring the best legal brains in the country to get a favourable judgment from the Supreme Court, whereas we are finding it difficult to hire a lawyer to defend our cause,” says the bishop. “Critics allege that our struggle is funded by the land mafia, quarry miners and the holiday resort lobby. If we had such support, we could have manipulated the whole issue. Our strength is our people. A majority of them are marginal farmers.”
Meanwhile, the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC), the highest decision- making body of the state’s Catholic bishops, met in Kochi on 19 November to review the strategy for the ongoing people’s protest. KCBC president Archbishop Andrews Thazhathu said that the church would continue to fight for the farmers.
“We are united and we will continue to support the struggle,” says Archbishop Thazhathu. “It’s most unfortunate that some politicians are trying to malign our bishops who are supporting the struggle. It’s not religion that is uniting people, but their cause. We can’t turn a blind eye when people are suffering.”
Kattapana is known as the spice village of Kerala. Located 80 kms away on the ghat road, this township with a population of 40,000 people has become the epicentre of the church protests. A sense of depression has gripped the spice plantations as farmers are worried about their fate after the Kasturirangan panel report is implemented.
For 48-year-old Tomy Joseph, a five acre farm has been his sole source of income for the past 25 years. “Without my farm, I’m nothing,” says the farmer. “I was born here and have lived here all my life. Why are we being punished in the name of protecting the environment?”
Joseph, who hails from a Catholic family that settled in Idukki two generations ago, joined the church-sponsored protest in Kattapana on 18-19 November. “It’s a depressing scenario. We are all worried,” he says. “On the one hand, the government is giving away land to corporate tycoons for a pittance in the name of development. On the other hand, they are planning to drive us away from our land in the name of protecting the environment. I believe it’s part of a hidden agenda.
“The Kasturirangan panel report has listed 123 villages as ecologically sensitive areas (ESAs) through satellite mapping. Even rubber plantations were considered as forests because they were green. But the panel delisted Ooty and Kodaikanal from the ESA. I don’t understand the rationale for excluding Ooty and including Kattapana in the list. The partisan approach is giving us nightmares.”
Joseph Albin, 19, too participated in the street protests with his friends. And he is very much concerned about the mounting tension sweeping over the high ranges.
“I’m not against protecting the environment,” says Albin. “However, the current move is not to protect the environment but to target the high ranges and the farmers living there. In Idukki alone, nearly one million people are going to be affected. After the Kasturirangan panel report was released, land prices in the area have hit rock bottom. Nobody wants to buy land here. We are finding it difficult to raise money for weddings in our family. Without dowry, nobody is going to marry our sisters.”
Albin warns that if the panel’s recommendations are implemented, farming activity will grind to a halt. “We know that they are not going to displace us from our land immediately,” he says. “But they will try their best to make our lives miserable with a series of regulations. As a result, we will be forced to sell our land for peanuts.
“Why are the government and green activists only bothered about the Western Ghats? There are hundreds of polluting factories that discharge waste into our rivers and kill thousands of people. No action has been taken against them. The government could not take action against those who are dumping waste in public places. But they are keen on protecting the Western Ghats.”
Father Sebastian Kochupurackel, a priest who led the civil disobedience struggle in Idukki, endorses this view. “We have organised a peaceful struggle for our cause. If the government tries to fool us with false promises, our struggle may take a violent turn,” warns the priest. “The government will be solely responsible for that situation.”
Father Kochupurackel says that the affected people have decided not to pay taxes or charges for telephone, water and electricity. “Critics allege that we are spreading rumours and our protest has no basis,” he says. “We have studied the report and are aware of its adverse impact. We have to stay vigilant or else our lives will be ruined.”
He adds that the movement has united people from all faiths and it is not a Catholic struggle as political parties and some sections of the media have branded it.
Meanwhile, the church’s war against the Kasturirangan panel report has won the hearts of its traditional enemy — the CPM. The party leadership is closely monitoring the political situation that is likely to prove detrimental to the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front.
“We are of the view that the farmers in Idukki or anywhere else in the Western Ghats should not face any hardship in the name of implementing the Kasturirangan panel report,” says CPM leader Pinarayi Vijayan. “We are all for protecting the environment. However, it should not be done at the cost of poor farmers.”
According to Vijayan, any move to implement the panel’s recommendations will only bring peril to those living in the high ranges of the Western Ghats. “It’s a pity that a high-level committee prepared a report in such a casual and careless manner, ignoring the ground reality that affects 2.2 million poor people in Kerala,” he says. “The committee should have visited the places and assessed the impact of its own recommendations.”
The CPM leader’s words are music to the ears of the church leaders. The common refrain seems to be: “Please forgive and forget and let’s unite for the cause of the farmers.” It’s a win-win situation for both the Catholic Church and the CPM. Without the cross, no gain.
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