The protest against the filling of wetland at Parayancheri in Kozhikode district has been stopped temporarily after Sub Collector V. Chelsasini assured local people that the soil deposited on the land would be removed post haste.
Ward councillor K.T. Sushaj, who had threatened to launch a satyagraha against the alleged inaction of the Revenue department said the department had neglected the grave nature of the issue despite several complaints.
The land in question is in the heart of the city, on Mavoor Road, and is part of the Kottooli wetland. A well-known builder had purchased the land recently and had been making repeated attempts to fill it, in violation of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act 2008, he said.
The councillor said the first attempt to fill land was made on August 16, 2021. The local people complained to the village office and a stop memo was served on the builder. Large-scale land filling took place on September 20, in violation of the stop memo. An earth mover was confiscated from the site, but those involved managed to flee with the earth mover, he said.
Further land filling took place on the night of February 11. The locals gathered and prevented workers from spreading the soil on February 12, and confiscated an earth mover with the help of the Medical College police.
“The stop memo is being violated repeatedly and the Revenue officials pay no heed to it despite several complaints,” said Mr. Sushaj, who has been at the forefront of several protests against encroachment of the Kottooli wetland over the last 20 years.
“The wetland is being encroached upon slowly by the land mafia and the Revenue department is not taking it seriously. If we do not buck up, the wetlands will soon be no more,” he said, adding that a large part of the city would become flood-prone without the wetlands.
“Ironically, there is no law to punish people who fill wetlands. The Revenue department can only force them to take the soil back. There is a need to revise the law concerning wetlands to prevent such encroachments,” he said.
The locals are planning to intensify their protest if the Revenue department fails to remove the soil within a few days.
