Wetland or wasteland?

IN a convincing, grandmotherly voice, an elderly woman tells her uncaring grandson that he must stop throwing rubbish into the river. This is pollution, and it is bad for the river, she scolds him. But he does not listen – she is old and does not know what she is talking about! Furthermore, they use a well to draw drinking water, so why worry?

As time elapses, a drought comes. The wells have dried up, and people are going to the river to find drinking water. Ah, but the river is polluted! The water is not potable either in the river or when it flows into the lake. A crisis is born. The grandson, the grandmother and the community take a pledge to manage their river and their lake better in the future.

A Bollywood movie? A parable? No, a puppet show. The puppets are crafted from recycled paper by schoolchildren, and the highly topical show is scripted and performed by them for local communities and visiting audiences, for wetland festivals, and perhaps, eventually, for policymakers. They have a message and a cause, and they have joined school-based Wetlands Study Centres, organised by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), to spread the word of conservation in every way they can: puppet shows, posters, dance, poetry, singing, costumed festival performances, a special magazine, a video documentary. Perhaps a movie is not far behind. The light of excitement and commitment in their young eyes may be the brightest part of the future of the Vembanad lake in Kerala.

The view of the Vembanad lake from a five-bedroom houseboat with a swimming pool has to be beautiful. People pay serious money to come to Kerala and board these rococo boats, to drift along quietly and be “ecotourists”, to be fed, housed, and conducted aquatically in peace, then to go home and tell their friends about their exotic Indian experience. Coconut palms form a living fringe on the lake in every direction. Iridescent paddyfields have colourfully dressed women planting rice. Traditional fishing vessels ply the lake waters while their sun-baked crew skilfully and photogenically toss their circular nets into the water.

more from Frontline (India)