Green manifesto urges ecological shift in Kerala’s planning, agriculture and infrastructure

A time-bound plan to phase out hazardous chemical pesticides in Kerala, transition to safer agricultural practices and a mission-mode programmes for paddy and plantation revival, climate mitigation and river management have been proposed in a citizens’ environmental charter prepared by the Kerala Paristhithi Aikya Vedi, a collective of environmental organisations and civil society groups.

The ‘green manifesto’, titled ‘From Forest to Sea: An Environmental Policy Framework for Kerala’ was released by senior journalist M.G. Radhakrishnan, and the first copies were received by Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president P.C. Vishnunadh and former Agriculture Minister and senior CPI leader Mullakkara Ratnakaran at a function held in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.

The charter, which assumes significance ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls, calls for integrating ecological considerations into planning, budgeting, infrastructure design, agriculture, industry and urban development.

One of the key proposals is the creation of a Kerala Climate Action and Resilience Mission to coordinate climate mitigation and adaptation efforts across government departments. The mission should integrate climate considerations into development planning and help align policies related to agriculture, infrastructure, energy, land use and disaster management.

In the agriculture sector, the charter recommends phasing out hazardous chemical pesticides, while expanding ecological and organic farming practices. Another major proposal is the launch of a Statewide Paddy Revival Mission to restore abandoned paddy fields and bring them back into cultivation. The document highlights that the decline of paddy cultivation has weakened food security, disrupted natural water management systems and reduced the extent of wetlands that help regulate floods.

It also recommends a Plantation Revival and Diversification Mission aimed at supporting plantation regions to adopt diversified cropping systems that enhance ecological stability and rural livelihoods.

Placing strong emphasis on forest restoration and biodiversity conservation in the Western Ghats, the manifesto proposes a State Mission for Invasive Species Removal and Forest Ecosystem Restoration to rehabilitate degraded forest landscapes. It also stresses the importance of legally securing and restoring wildlife corridors, particularly the key corridors in Kerala that connect fragmented forest habitats.

Recognising the importance of integrated water management, the manifesto proposes establishing a Kerala River Basin and Water Systems Mission to coordinate the management of rivers, floodplains and drainage networks at a basin scale. The framework also calls for restoring degraded natural drainage channels, hill streams and riverbanks.

A Kerala Wetland Mission has been proposed to coordinate mapping, legal protection and restoration of wetlands and floodplains across the State.

Given Kerala’s long coastline and vulnerability to sea-level rise and erosion, the charter recommends creating a Kerala Coastal and Marine Resilience Mission. The initiative should focus on protecting estuaries, backwaters, coastal wetlands, sand dunes and marine ecosystems that support fisheries and coastal livelihoods.

The document also calls for expanding mangrove conservation through a Kerala Mangrove Mission, aimed at restoring and protecting mangrove ecosystems as natural buffers against storms and coastal flooding.

The charter further proposes establishing a State Land Governance Reform Commission to review and align existing laws related to land use, ecological zoning and planning permissions.

Tribal poet Sukumaran Chaligadda, and environmentalists N. Badusha, Sridhar Radhakrishnan, Veena Maruthoor, M.J. Babu and S. Usha also spoke.