Nothing of the present – repeat Nothing can be compared to the Munnar of the past. The Munnar of the past was Paradise, while the Munnar of the present, if I may quote a title from Milton, is ‘Paradise Lost’, writes Mr.Shamshudeen Marikar.He also comments on present scenario and a dream for future, if there is any.

Munnar is a lost glory to what it was just a few years ago, may be as recent as three or four decades ago- Ecologically, in its fantastic natural scenic beauty, in its Biodiversity, Socially and in every conceivable aspect.

Till the late fifties or even early sixties, a stranger in Munnar found an unpolluted beautiful land with crystal clear rivers flowing silently, with sunlight reflecting iridescent ripples on their sandy bottom. Standing over the ‘Churchill Bridge’ a quaint suspension bridge that connected the Munnar town to the Matupatty road, one could see Carp and Trout in small shoals swimming in the clear water. Dark patches at the bottom of the river were tadpoles by the thousands, and water plants waved below in rhythm with the flow of water. The banks of the river were clean with grass and natural flora which supported many life forms.

Further downriver from the ‘Arulmani’ bridge (connecting Munnar to the Chokanad road) to the turn off at Chokanad and past where the High Range club stands, families of Otters lived, and it was a pleasure to watch them and their cavorting in the water. Number of Moorhens nested on either side of the bank. Other than the Otters there were frequent sighting of the small leopard like Indian fishing Cat, mostly at night. The rivers were filled with different species of frogs whose croaking especially on the advent of the monsoon was a delight to hear. The millions of tadpoles transformed to little frogs crossed the roads about September, and various species of birds supported by the plant life on the banks of the river fed on them.

These are just a few examples of what was Munnar in its Biodiversity and only the tip of the iceberg. Where are they now? Are we going to get back these lost cycle of nature?

In Munnar today, frogs don’t croak, birds if any don’t sing, the rivers are murky and dirty with alleged flushing of septic tanks of the many resorts secretly and periodically.

Till the late sixties and before the advent of Tourism Munnar had scarcely 300 motor vehicles in all categories like two wheelers, Cars, Tractors and a few buses and Lorries commuting to the low country. These vehicles were scattered over the entire estates and pollution, traffic congestion etc were unheard of. Today there are over 500 Auto rickshaws, over 400 Jeeps about 300 Taxicabs, a few hundred commercial and owner driven vehicles, centered within Munnar Town and its immediate peripheral areas not to mention more buses coming and going in and out of Munnar daily. Add to this fantastic pressure of traffic in this little ‘Heritage’ plantation town, there are at least 1500 motor vehicles like cars, vans, tourist buses mostly diesel visiting Munnar every day, repeat every day during the Tourist season, spewing out smoke and exhaust gases. This basic statistics has to be considered with urgency and seriously for the following reasons.

Munnar is approximately 4500ft above msl. There is a sudden drop in temperature by late afternoon after which the temperature drops rapidly as the night progresses. By 12 noon the fantastic amount of exhaust gas spewed out by nearly 1500 vehicles running nonstop daily is taken up by the warming atmosphere. By evening along with the drop of temperature with such a variation all this polluted gas settles down in a slatey mist. Munnar is nestled with soft hills all around as i in a bowl. There is no ‘Land Breeze and Sea Breeze’ to blow off at least part of this effluence ; The next day as the sun rises and the temperature goes up these gases rise up along with the ones added to it by more traffic movement. Munnar must be the most polluted town in Kerala. Already many of us are aware of the seriousness of this pollution as a health hazard. There is no plausible solution to it either. As tourism expands, and it is, in the most senseless unplanned and high pressure manner, you cannot compare the present Munnar to the very healthy and beautiful Hill Station and paradise it once was – ever.

The greatest irreplacable loss to Munnar is its culture. A place where there were hardly any sex workers in those days, it is alleged there is now a roaring trade in this direction after the advent of Tourism. Similarly many diseases never before known in Munnar are now commonly prevalent.

I will quote one such incident. At the time of the devastating fire of Munnar where the whole town was burnt, a distraught merchant managed to enter his shop and collect about forty sovereigns of gold ornaments he had left there. Enroute to his house he dropped it from his bag and discovered the loss only when he reached home. A poor porter who noticed the lost Jewels collected it and was making discreet enquiries to trace the owner. Once he was traced, he handed it to him in Toto in the presence of the then Dysp. A public meeting was organized and it was handed over to the owner by the Dysp praising the porter for his honesty. The people of Munnar collected Rs. 5000/- irrespective of their personal losses. This was presented to the porter at this public meeting by the Dysp. Today Munnar is rampant with Pickpockets, Chain snatchers, Car thieves, Burglars, Shoplifters and allegedly Goondas and definitely confidence tricksters making a quick buck on sale of allegedly documented land in their possession to greedy and gullible investors from outside. While a woman could walk back to her estate after nightfall alone those days, today no woman is safe on the road even in broad daylight without being accosted or insulted by strangers, usually punks who pass as tourists.

From about 15 to 20 tons of garbage a month those days, today Munnar spews out over 25 tons of garbage a day. While the present Panchayat is doing a wonderful job in this direction literally clearing and cleaning the proverbial Aegean Stables as such, giving us an almost litter free Munnar which has to be lauded, unfortunately in the damp ‘Hill Station’ climate which Munnar has, though the dumping and denaturing plant for this colossal amount of garbage is far away from Munnar, we are faced with new verities of mosquitoes – a menace Munnar never had before.

I am sure these few examples – which are only the tip of the iceberg, will suffice for a comparison of the Munnar of yesteryear and of today. However in conclusion on this subject of the change in Munnar and its impact, the greatest loss to Munnar is the loss of its fantastic and unique ‘Old-world’ traditions customs and culture which loss we are never going to regain – ever.

Future ‘Development’ of Munnar?

A debatable question if ever there was one. One should understand, geologically, the Munnar hills in the Western Ghats are soft hills and very fragile unlike ones in the North or elsewhere. It nurses a very delicate ecosystem that should not be tampered with. These Hills are one of the greatest Watersheds that supplement a number of rivers. Unplanned high intensity Tourism with greedy investors with alleged political clout filling every available nook and cranny on these mountains with high rise buildings flaunting all naturals norms and laws of nature or environmental considerations ‘legally’ and often illegally, even Government Departments cashing in on the issue irrespective of safety norms and other considerations, lack of political will to take action against such violations, heavy Earthmoving machinery unscientifically destroying bases of these hills causing major landslides and irreversible damage to the delicate balance of nature of these hills, are just a few examples that is not conducive to any positive development of Munnar . Let us analyze a few of these aspects.

As mentioned above, the hills of Munnar are ‘Soft’ hills composed mainly of Quarts, Mica, limestone and fullers earth, and a watershed to boot. If you make a study of the development of Munnar from its beginning, say as far back as 1900 or the turn of the last century, the colonials and people later if they wanted a colony, say houses, a gently sloping road from the base of the hill was cut a little way up ,with a few houses and enough earth moved to bear them. The road continued higher till another set of buildings was constructed and so on. Now after nearly a century they still stand intact and firm as do the hills. However nowadays the very base of these hills are dug out in the most unscientific and reckless manner causing major landslides and catastrophic damage to the land. One example is the Arts College on the Munnar Devicolam road. Many of us tried our best to stop this project on grounds mentioned above. But vested interest, lack of political will and alleged corruption has left a colossal monument of waste and ecological man made horror which is irreversible. And more happening.

The same applies to the so called ‘High Altitude’ Stadium that does not qualify for what it is meant, and it has caused untold damage to that area causing flooding of the main Aluva – Munnar National Highway at that point even in a mere normal monsoon. We all know a whole Hillock on the way to Matupatty was razed to the ground to fill the 27 acres of the stadium ! – that much for ecology.

The list is endless. ‘Manthikad’ ( a name forgotten !) just after the turn of the Regional office of Ms. Kannan Devan Hills Co. Put Ltd., has been dug up to ‘widen’ the road against objection from many of us. It is only matter of time when this part of the mountain is bound to come sliding down causing massive destruction.

Or take for instance the so called ‘Car Park’ opposite the above mentioned Regional Office connecting the Post-office road to the Devicolam road; it is another glaring example of what is happening in Munnar in the name of ‘Development’. Well, we can site many more incidents that have happened, are happening, and predict more that is bound to happen – benefiting whom? Frankly not Munnar nor the people of Munnar anyway.

There was a Traffic Committee comprising of people from the public. For some reason the members from the public who own vehichle and are aware of practical problems and who were on this committee have been suddenly eliminated from it . I understand it now has representation from Union Leaders and their ilk. Union Leaders in such committees are welcome, but one should remember they represent a party and necessarily not the ‘people’. This Committee should be reformed and regular meetings held, and it is imperative decisions taken should be implemented.

Time the Government drew in the reins of this most unrealistic damaging high intensity ‘Tourism Program’ and concentrate more on saving the ecology, biodiversity, the traditions and culture of a once beautiful haven and society of this country. In the present scenario it is the Government Departments like the KSEB, the Forest Department and the KTDC that are really cashing in on tourism in Munnar. There are many areas where these Departments could leave much of their activities to professionals and monitor and regulate them rather than operating them.

History of Munnar in brief

A brief glimpse of the history of Munnar, the Poonjnar ‘Raja’ had given a hundred year lease of the ‘Concession Land’ as it is usually termed to one JD Munro, which was subsequently sold to the erstwhile Scottish firm Messers James Finlay Ltd based in Glasgow at the turn of the century, for plantation purposes. It is understood that the Company first tried its hand at planting Cinchona a tree from which quinine an important medicinal drug of those days was extracted, but due to the competition from Africa they discontinued its planting and went onto Sisal, a plant from which hemp rope is manufactured. However this was also discontinued as found not viable, and it is understood the Company planted Tea and registered their Estates as Kannan Devan Hill Produce Co. Ltd., about the year 1885.

The labor force was entirely Tamilians from the erstwhile Madras Presidency, now, Tamil Nadu .It is a historical and social fact that Munnar and surrounding hills were developed over generation totally by Tamils and this area was officially declared a ‘Linguistic Minority’ area. The region was virtually an ‘Amazonian Jungle’ teaming with elephants, bison, bears, Panthers Tigers, wild boars and many other species of wildlife now either endangered or even extinct. Same applies to other fauna and flora some of which are not to be even seen in these hills these days. Malaria was rampant and the Colonial planters are reputed to have imported into this region the Spatodia (Tree Tulip) tree the flowers of which killed mosquitoes which settled in them.

The ‘present day’ Munnar actually developed after the devastating flood of 1923-24.Heavy rains in the magnitude of 30 inches a day for over three days continually in the North Eastern part of Munnar i.e. Matupatty- Kundalay area caused massive landslides that formed a natural dam almost at the present site of the Matupatty Dam. Casualty was immense when this gave way killing many people and destroying everything in its wake including the then Munnar Township. The Company and the community lost heavily. It was Mr. Pinches of the Colonial Company who stubbornly stood by to rebuild what was lost. It will not be out of place here to mention my father the late Mr. H.O.L Marikar hailing from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and who settled here about the year 1908, opted to stay back and work shoulder to shoulder with the Company in restituting, rebuilding and expansion of the Company, and the present Munnar Town. Most of the bridges and the Company’s staff quarters, residence of the merchants, the Market place, roads etc were built by him on contract and have withstood to date, years of cyclone and other forces of nature over near a century.

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Again we have only touched the tip of the iceberg. There are many more aspects that cannot be discussed here due to obvious practical reasons. I think the Government should hold periodic seminars on the subject of ‘The Future Development of Munnar’. Holding such Seminars alone will not solve the problem; they should be followed up, without any delay hindering implementation of such programs and decisions taken.

In my opinion there is an urgent need to form a Munnar Development Committee. The Government should be a watch dog and not a Hound. Members should be elected on a very broad based selection than those with Political \ Union based clout.

These are a few of my observations and suggestions, as a resident Senior Citizen, and stake holder ,whose family settled down here about a century ago. What I have written here is without any prejudice and I trust will be taken in its true spirit. Thanking you for the opportunity given to me for voicing my opinion.

Shamshudeen Marikar
Munnar.