Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

of the necessities. Biodiversity is part of the paramba as an ecosystem, which is also
being destroyed as a result of partition, denudation of vegetation, destruction of water
sources and conversion into house-sites. While it has been realized that wetland is an
ecosystem, even the experts are yet to realize that parambas and Purayidams also their
specific ecological characteristics, including specific soil type, water resources, and
specific forms of vegetation and that parambas have so far been the basis of habitat
formation in our region. Hence, there is every need to retain the parambas as a specific
entity in human ecology. The present trend to destroy wetlands and parambas into
homogenous entities destroy the features of human geography that has sustained life in
the region for centuries. Hence, apart from the preservation of parambas, the region
should attempt at an appropriate form of habitat planning.
A similar planning should be attempted for the coastal alluvial zone. It is known that the
sandy regions are suitable for coconut cultivation, and they have traditionally supported
coconut farms, and they should be retained as such. The coastal alluvium is also suited
for paddy cultivation, and there have been paddy fields in both Vallikkunnu and
Parappanangadi right down to the sea, which have converted into coconut farms recently.
The potential for wetland cultivation in the area can still be developed, which may be
explored. The coastal area also has a number of areas which had patannas or saltpans.
Fish from the coastal line were brought by peddlers on foot up to Kondotty and
Malappuram and sold there. Meennayattu conducted in several parts point to the
possibilities for inland fisheries in the ponds, river, and challis which may still be
explored, although informants have been complaining that varieties of fish in the ponds
and streams have died out due to pesticide pollution.
All these point to a planning from the human geographical or rather ecological
perspective, with the drainage area of the Kadalundi River basin at the centre. Probably