Preface The destruction of our forests has been of some concern since early 70's. The Silent Valley struggle in late 70's is a landmark. The achievement of the struggle was arousal of concern for nature in many especially, youth. The older issues like pollution from Grassim industries caused to Chaliyar River or disappearing wetland and forests could not achieve the magnitude ofripples Silent Valley struggle could create. Keralam had 70,000 ha. of mangroves, 39 backwaters nourished by 41 west flowing rivers bringing nutrients from the mountains and sustaining the pristine and unique coastal systems at the dawn of this century. We have lost all of them in strict biological terms. Still we have small specks of these as remnants. What we have today vary from one plant to a speck of wetland traces or a mangrove patch. The need for care and nurture ofthese delicate specks are all the more relevant. Urgent protection measure to restore is the need of the hour. A stock taking for understanding the system could be done later. This is a catch 22 situation. How can you care and restore a system, which is little known. I do not have an answer for this as of now but I feel we should be able to achieve it. As a boy of elementary class I used to wonder and sit patiently asking questions to 'Pokkichi • (she was a traditional stake holder of the wetlands with a wisdom and understanding of its diversity when I look back to her now.) who brought prawns, crabs and a variety of fishes from the 'Kaippad' (wetlands). Since then, I had tried to devote my selfto search for better understanding of wetlands and its intricacies. I did not take up this as a conventional research but as a personal search that started with bird watching and later been enlarged to study ofthe wetland ecosystem. One of the causes for wetland destruction today is tourism development. Dhanaraj Keezhara. Programme Coordinator (Kerala programme) of Equations has been motivating me to study the backwaters. Later with inputs of Haribabu of Coastal programmes (Equations) the framework for this study was drawn. I proposed a budget and a programme. The work got itself changed into new dimensions during the course of the study. I could not complete the work with in the budget and time. The work presented in the following pages is a part of an ongoing struggle. There are two parts of the report. Part 1 is the literature survey and the case study ofthe two wetlands. Part 2 is selected abstracts related and relevant for wetlands of South India. I am hopeful of finding support to continue the work deeper and involve in an educational process to create better understanding ofthe system. I need to thank many people. All had a common goal to share and hence, this is not my personal work but a collective effort. Most ofthem do not want the names to be mentioned here. Therefore, while expressing my gratitude to all of them I am not mentioning the names. I am personally responsible for accuracy of information and interpretations in the report and if there are any mistakes it is mine not ofthe group. C. Jayakumar. Introduction Keralam could have been the ideal place for study on the interaction of the land with water in its natural abundance. Here various fonns of life could have been mutually influencing and collectively changing the land and waterscapes and evolving further to maintain hannony and rythm of the system. In the recent past human populations also came into this as dependent communities which tried to understand the life supporting system and harmony in living together. At some point of time these communities became societies, which are humancentric, and soon the fabric of life support system was taken for granted and the priority shifted to efforts to acquire assets to become "powerful". Thus the scenarios changed drastically. Looking back it is easier for us to understand these as we live in the same scenario but with much more technological might and on top of ignorance about the backdrop, which maintains, enriches, fills and makes life meaningful and possible. We will never be able to understand the situations earlier to this as we have lost the best of the natural systems and human communities who understood them and used them. Positioning ourselves in the postmodern realities one need to look back to understand about ourselves and also to continue the journey further searching for the "survival knowledge". The fishing communities, tribal communities and fanners lived and manipulated the wetlands and backwaters to a greater extent. Coastal Keralam was actually a broken mass ofland connected by water. The people were dependent directly on the land and water. Geographical limits were accepted as limits for the community and "beyond" were for those who dare. "Beyond" was also the space for adventure, mysteries and of unknown. Conflicts of chieftains often led to wars eventually taking partisan asylum in the empires. The Kings wanted connectivity and fortunately had traditional ways to keep the area together. The limited surplus capital was a positive factor as far as wetlands were concerned. This got changed and construction of roads and bunds, which were the major negative activity, was the result of war and arrival of European for trade. Tipu built the m~or roads in Malabar and the British built first railway line up to Kadalundi to fight Tipu. The construction of this railway has been the first major damage to the wetlands of Keralam, which fragmented and stagnated the ecosystem. Subsequently reclaiming the common land and waterscape. Everyone also accepted conversion of these to private property. Encroachments of the hills in large scale also started at the same time. Both required surplus capital to build and maintain the land or the farms. Labour force was not available and soon migrant labour was brought in and provided shelter so that they will be available for immediate needs. The rest is the most recent history written by many which all of us know. A literature survey to understand the scientific work can go back 300 years to the past. The first author (using the research jargon) who described mangroves is Van Rbeede (1678-1693) who described 18 mangrove species in his legendary 'Horthus Malabaricus' with excellent hand dra"ings and described medicinal properties of some of them. This is the base line work by Government Departments, Universities, Research Institutes, Scholars, Non Governmental Organisations and individuals followed resulting fairly large number of papers on various aspects of wetlands. The search to compile the research on wetlands of Keralam led to over 5000 references of which some are directly based on Keralam and others covering aspects which can be applied to understand Wetlands of Keralam. A select abstracts related to wetlands are included as part 2 ofthis report. The largest number of reports is by biologists. The naturalists gave accounts of birds, fishes, plants and various aspects related to natural history, species and ecosystem. The work of professionals based in research centres, Universities and Government departments also resulted in large number of papers on a variety of aspects. P.W.O., Indo-Dutch mission and C W.R.O.M. gave in-depth analysis from engineering point of view. CE.S.S. attempted mapping of wetlands, mangroves, Kayals etc,. Most of the other work has been on inventorying. Kerala Agricultural University and its Research stations worked on matters related to agriculture and soil. K.F.R.I. and CE.S.S. also organised management programmes. Department of Aquatic biology, University of Kerala has done work on the ecology of Kayals and backwaters. CM.F.R.I. has done work on fisheries, aquaculture and related fields. An inter disciplinary work to interpret the complex natural life supporting system is yet to be visualized and accomplished. The work by these Institutes are sometimes fragmented often dealt in detail to a specific problem but an attempt to understand the problem in the back drop of the system which supports life is yet to start. The following are the institutions, which undertook various research programmes: 1. University ofKerala, Thiruvanantbapuram. 2. Public Works Department, Govt. ofKeraIam, Thiruvanantbapuram 3. State Committee on Science and Technology. Govt. ofKeralam, Thlruvananthapuram 4. C.E.S.S., Thiruvananthapuram. 5. T.B.G.R.I., Thiruvananthapuram. 6. C.D.S., Thiruvananthapuram. 7. Centre for Environment & Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. 8. Environment Resources Research Centre, Thiruvananthapuram. 9. Programme for Community Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram. 10. Mahathma Gandhi University, Kottayam. 11. Coehln University ofScience and Technology, Koehi 12. C.M.F.R.I., Koehl. 13. C.I.F.T., Koehl. 14. John Abraham·, Kumarakam 15. KS.S.P., Thrissur. 16. Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur. 17. K.F.R.I., Thrissur. 18. University ofCali cut, Thenhippalam. 19. Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasargod. 20. Thanal- Conservation Action and Information Network, Kannur & Thrissur. 21. S.E.E.K, Payyannur. 22. Kerala Natural History Society, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode. 23. Mangalore University, Mangalore. 24. Abdul Khader·, Kattampally. 25. Department ofFisheries. Govt. ofKeralam, Thiruvananthapuram. • John Abraham, Kumarakam and Abdul K.hader Kattampally are the two individuals who fought for wetlands right from late fifties. Their contributions are not published as scientIfic papers. They have written large volume of articles and has been inspiration for many. There may be many such little known or unknown individuals who are not included here. The above institutions have officially worked on topics I aspects related to wetlands. Some of them, environment impact assessment written by the organisations only to favour the State or the industry forgetting the fundamentals of science.