Rejuvenating the Massakal stream through community participation

As part of one of the ways to reduce negative interactions between humans and wildlife, the Massakal stream was cleaned of invasive plants. Overgrown invasive plants serve as ideal resting spots for wildlife like sloth bears, wild boar and gaur. Moreover, these areas have become informal dumping areas for garbage-serving the purpose of out of sight out of mind. Not only does this pollute the area around the stream but it also attracts wildlife-influencing their food habits.

Meeting with community leaders to discuss plan of action-

Photo taken by Nayantara

The community from Massakal –a settlement in Kookalthorai- realized this and had approached the team from Keystone Foundation to help them clean the stream and surrounding areas from invasive plants and plant native grasses with water purifying properties along the stream. There were meetings held with the leaders of the community and the Panchayat President to put a plan in place and get the necessary permissions to execute the plan. Soon after, a JCB was hired to clean the area surrounding the stream (about 3 acres) from invasive plants- Lantana camara, Solanum mauritianum, Bidens pilosa, etc- as it would be a time consuming process manually because of the intensity of growth.

Hired JCB clearing the area of overgrown invasive plants-Video taken by Prathap

Once the area was cleared from the over – growth, all the garbage that had been dumped over the years was unearthed. Interested youth from the community along with the sanitary workers sent by the Panchayat started to clean the waste which was collected and taken to the panchayat waste collection centre. The invasive plant waste was gathered in one area and burnt. Since there was ample space away from the stream, the community wanted a small portion of the land to make a ground for the children to use. So, they collectively raised funds to make the ground, while native water grasses that improve the local biodiversity were planted along the stream. Prathap, the community volunteer from Massakal who spearheaded the coordination on ground, gives us a glimpse to the on ground experience in the video below.