Industrial project at Aranmula: Environmentalists term it shocking betrayal by LDF government

Time of India

6 hours ago

T'puram: A fresh storm of protest has erupted after the TOI expose revealed that the state govt is actively considering a proposal to set up an electronics manufacturing cluster in Aranmula.
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This is the same ecologically fragile site where a controversial greenfield airport project was once proposed and later scrapped following a mass agitation.
Environmentalists and activists have called out the move as a shocking betrayal by the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), accusing it of erasing its own legacy and compromising critical ecological protections in the name of development. The Rs 600-crore project, proposed by a private firm linked to the original Aranmula airport promoters, is planned on 335.25 acres of paddy and wetland.
Environmentalists say this land is protected under the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008.
"This is not just a blatant violation of the law — it is a moral betrayal by a govt that rode to power on the back of the very struggle that protected these lands," said environmentalist Sridhar Radhakrishnan. Calling it "ecological vandalism masquerading as development," Radhakrishnan said: "The LDF, which once scrapped the disastrous airport project in Aranmula, is now courting the same forces under a new name.
The chief minister's and the LDF govt's obsession with burying and destroying paddy fields has become a dangerous pattern — from Keezhattoor to Kooriyad and now Aranmula.
This is not progress. It is a self-inflicted disaster."
Legal activist and environmental lawyer Harish Vasudevan warned that the proposal would be a test of political integrity for several LDF leaders, especially those who once stood shoulder to shoulder with local residents during the anti-airport protests.
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"If this project was considered on any other land, the govt might have claimed plausible deniability by citing field reports. But not in Aranmula," Vasudevan said.
"Every senior Left leader — from chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to M A Baby and CPI leaders like Binoy Viswam and P Prasad — visited this land during the anti-airport agitation. They know what it is. They spoke to the people. If they approve this now, it will be a damning indictment of their honesty," he said.
He added that in the nine years of LDF rule, no attempt was made to promote agriculture or ecological restoration in the area. "The govt has not only failed to implement the Paddy and Wetland Conservation Act — it has failed the people of Aranmula and the spirit of its own legislation."
The state govt, however, has maintained that the proposal is under consideration and would be subject to legal and environmental clearances. But critics point out that even such active consideration signals a troubling shift in policy. More than 90% of the proposed site continues to be classified as paddy land in revenue records and is under legal scrutiny in connection with earlier encroachment cases. Activists argue that any move to repurpose the land for industrial use could set a dangerous precedent for wetland governance in the state.
"The real danger is in normalising this kind of ecological betrayal under the guise of development," said Radhakrishnan. "This isn't just about Aranmula. This is about the soul of Kerala's environmental policy," he said.