The New Indian Express 24.05.2013
Urban pond rejuvenation tastes success

Seeing the positive response to its pilot Urban Biodiversity
Enhancement Programme, under which polluted urban ponds are being given a
fresh lease of life through people’s participation, the Kerala State
Biodiversity Board (KSSB) will soon expand it to more ponds in the city.
As
part of the pilot project of this programme, as Express reported last
month, four ponds in the city had been selected and turned over to the
respective residents’ associations for their cleaning and restoration.
Further, these ponds would be made “urban biodiversity centres” by
planting medicinal plants and trees around them.
“Once the work
is completed on these ponds, we will begin on three more we have
identified,” said KSBB Chairman Oommen V Oommen, speaking to Express on
the sidelines of the World Biodiversity Day observance here on
Wednesday. “We have already got applications for about five more ponds.”
The
work on the four pilot ponds – Mangannoorkonam pond, Pattom;
Thoppilkulam, Paruthippara; Chaliara pond, Poojappura and NCC pond at
Nalanchira – was to be completed by the World Biodiversity Day but work
on two of them have exceeded the deadline.
The Srinagar
Residents’ Association of Thoppilkulam, Paruthippara, are seeking extra
funds for the final works as the Rs 1.5 lakh sanctioned by the KSBB got
used up in rebuilding the boundary wall that got damaged during the
cleaning.
“We have been advised to use biofencing with ‘kaitha’
(screw pine) and ‘ramacham’ for two of the sides,” said R Harikumar, a
residents’ association committee member. “We hope to finish the work in
the next ten days.”
Similarly, the Mangannoorkonam pond, Pattom,
also has about a week’s work left. Here, it is the residents themselves
who have been doing most of the painting and cleaning work.
“We
have also planted 17 native medicinal and fruit species, including
‘rudrasham’, ‘asokam’, mango and several species of ‘jamba,’” said S B
Krishnakumar, secretary of Pattom Mangannoorkonam Residents’
Association.
On the other hand, residents of Tilak Nagar,
Nalanchira, who live near the roughly 50 cent NCC pond, have been able
to stick to the deadline of May 22.
“We didn’t have any major
construction work as the boundary wall had been built a couple of years
ago by the Corporation,” said Gopindran Nair, secretary of the
association. “We have planted around 160 species of medicinal and
flowering plants around the pond.”