The Green Crusader

The 1970s under Indira Gandhi were the best thing to have happened to India's environment

- M K Prasad

THOUGH I never had any direct contact with Indira Gandhi, I remember the time when she and I were fighting for the same goal. In the 1970s, the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP), of which I was a part, was campaigning to save Silent Valley, located in the Western Ghats in the state’s Palakkad district on the border with Tamil Nadu. KSSP was protesting against the state government’s move to construct a dam on the Kuntipuzha River that flowed through the region. The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) had proposed the dam in 1970. KSSP had executed a wide and far-reaching campaign among the public so that pressure could be exerted on the state government to rescind the project. Besides us, the project’s other opponents included the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for Nature.

We won a victory of sorts when the Kerala High Court issued a stay order on the project. But the KSEB fought on, with illegal means. It bribed the state’s political parties, giving them S1 lakh each, to gain their acquiescence.

The whole issue was being reported in the national media. Incensed by the reports, Indira Gandhi stepped in. She contacted the leadership of the Congress Party that was ruling the state. She argued with them on the people’s objections to the project as well as the dangers of constructing the dam. Finally, the Kerala government was forced to abandon the project. Some years later, the area was declared a national park. It would be safe to say that, had she not played her part, there would have been an ugly dam at the location.