A village on the border with Tamil Nadu, which has most number of borewells in Kerala, is finding change slowly coming in, thanks to prompt moves by the grama panchayat to tackle extreme drought.
Over the last decade, Karunapuram, the village that reportedly falls on the extended rain shadow area from Chinnar and the western side of the Western Ghats, faced harsh impacts of climate change. From 2011 to 2013, it was severe drought in the area.
Studies carried out in the area found groundwater level going down and southwest monsoon giving the area a miss.
The only rainfall the area got, as is usually the case with rain shadow areas like Chinnar and Marayur, was during the northeast monsoon. All these rendered the main occupation of the farm sector unviable.
The drought was so harsh that it led the villagers to dig many bore wells. But the groundwater level kept depleting further. The wells were then abandoned one by one.
The change in the climate was even otherwise palpable, says Augustine Kurumannil, an old generation farmer and a former member of the grama panchayat. The sugarcane cultivation and water streams in his land had dried out after groundwater level dropped forcing the farmers to abandon sugarcane cultivation. With their crops gone, many farmers left the village.
It was then that the panchayat stepped in. The fragile ecological situation urged them to focus on saving water through rainwater harvesting, rejuvenating borewells, making small checkdams, and greening the village with massive plantations of tree saplings. The local body also nurtured a nursery for supplying tree saplings. This was in addition to a steady campaign launched to preserve water and rejuvenate the water bodies.
The effort is slowly paying off now, says Mr. Kurumannil said. Many of the abandoned bore wells could be regenerated. Almost every house has a rainwater storage facility or pits for storing rainwater, in addition to the water recharging facilities in the wells. The main river Kallar also has nearly 10 small checkdams, says panchayat secretary Sunil Sebastian.
The result was seen last summer with the area showing better water storage, says Sajimon M.G., who runs a hotel at Karunapuram junction. “This year, we got surplus rainfall in the two monsoons,” he adds.
Farming, especially of main high-range crops such as pepper and coffee, is also making a comeback. Seeing the landscape inch back to normal, the farmers who left the village are now returning. Cardamom cultivation that needs a cool climate and green cover is being revived.
The village is now better equipped to face a drought, residents say. People are thoughtful now and water-saving measures will get continuous attention, says grama panchayat president Mini Prince.
“We can now claim that this was the only grama panchayat in the area that did not supply drinking water on tanker lorries to residents during extreme summer in the last two years,” says Mr Sebastian.
According to climatologist Gopakumar Cholayil, though the Karunapuram experience cannot be termed purely as an example of how to tackle climate change, the efforts could help mitigate its impact.
Such stories of work, strategy, and above all hope, will be a model to emulate when faced with bitter climate odds.
