From one end, it looks like a typical clean pond in Kerala, surrounded by green trees on all sides. But the gap between the cemented edges and an interior road on one side is strewn with mostly plastic waste. The Charachira pond in Nanthancode, Thiruvananthapuram which had once been a large water body, has reduced to less than half its size in the passing decades. The hope that it will be saved by the city Corporation is now being contended by green enthusiasts.
Veena Maruthoor, an environmentalist based in the city who has been active since the 1990s, posted pictures of the pond four days ago and wrote that with 'extreme sadness and incredible amount of anger and anxiety for the coming generations' she has to make a plea towards the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. "We have here in the midst of town, the biggest water body, the one and only Charachira pond, now reduced to half its original size in the last 50 years. Even into 2015 and 16 one could see tankers collecting water from here and going here and there supplying water. Now with the new construction aboard, the Corporation has started dumping construction waste and domestic waste to fill up the edges.”
The construction she mentions includes a walkway – resulting in the cemented edges of the pond - on three sides. The fourth side is being made now. It is part of a renovation project that began over three years ago when VK Prasanth, a Member of the Legislative Assembly, was the Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. He and Deputy Mayor Rakhi Ravikumar had launched the work three years ago, promising a fishing space among other innovations.
However, Deputy Mayor Rakhi Ravikumar told TNM that the current issue of waste being dumped next to the pond has not come to her attention.
“It is in 2017-18 that they declared it would be a fish pond and an aqua culture would be developed. That project has come to a standstill. This was a huge pond once, reduced to 300 cents now after more people came to reside around it and the pond got invaded little by little. Even now, the water is clean,” says Veena, who is also a member of the city-based Tree Walk, a group that has been working towards protecting trees and educating people on biodiversity for eight years.
Another member of Tree Walk, Balachandran, who did a small survey of the pond, found that there only freshwater dragonflies around the pond, not the ones seen in polluted waters, which indicated that the water was clean.
“Which means that it can be used as a water resource at a time when such sources are depleting fast. Instead of doing something to conserve it, the land around it is offered to builders to build apartments. It will soon be hidden by constructions around it and forgotten, like the pond in Kowdiar,” Veena fears.
She has many ideas to revive it – ‘why not bring it back as a butterfly garden’.
Long, long ago, the place was full of ponds and gardens, flowers for the temples were taken from here. Garden in Malayalam is nandavanam, that’s how the place got the name Nanthancode is one version, says historian Malayinkeezhu Gopalakrishnan.
“It was full of small woods and ponds and manjadi maram (Peacock flower fence). There was a palace nearby – which is now the Devaswom Board office. The pond was very huge once and washermen and women used to live by its side, washing clothes with the water from Charachira. They were called ‘mannaanmar’. But as time passed, buildings were built and townships were developed. Private parties bought lands and flats were built. The invasion of the pond began, like it did with the many other ponds of the city,” Malayinkeezhu says.
He rattles off names – the pond opposite the Power House is gone and in its place is a lorry stand, the SMV school ground was once a lotus pond, the ‘velya kulam’ (big pond) in Vazhuthacaud is no more.
“The same invasion happened in Charachira. When it became too much, the residents gave a petition to the Corporation after which it took over the pond,” the historian says.
Plastic waste strewn on the side of the pond
In Nanthancode is a quaint red and cream convent school for girls, built decades ago. Students of the school led by a teacher had approached VK Prasanth when he was Mayor, with their concerns about the pond.
Evangeline, the Physics teacher who led the girls, says they had done a study of the pond, as part of a Wipro project in 2016. “I took my students there and we studied the site. We could see bits of plastic and a half-built pathway into the pond. We noted how much deterioration has already occurred in all these years and took our findings, along with guided suggestions, to the Mayor. We were promised action, but the problem continues to exist,” says Evangeline.
Weeds on the pond and the cemented edges
She doesn’t understand why the construction of the walkway was needed. “What is the need for a footpath inside the water body – it is not quite at the edge but a little bit inside. That further reduces the volume of the pond. They also built a drain adjacent to the pathway but the outlet is blocked. The dumping of waste is happening between this pathway and a narrow road towards one side,” Evangeline says.
While MLA Prasanth was not available for comment, Palayam Rajan, Chairperson of Town Planning Standing Committee, says that the side wall is being built for protection.
“We have been removing the water hyacinth which had grown in the pond and putting it over the walls. That’s what some people have been calling waste. The rest of the waste that’s seen there is from a construction site nearby, being dumped by some pick-up auto rickshaws when it is dark. The construction work around the pond – to build the fourth and final side of the pathway – has been temporarily halted since we need to take some measurements, check the depth and then remove cheli (mud). But the work will resume next week,” he says.