Save Silent valley movement:

Series of events

1970: the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) proposes a hydroelectric dam across the
Kunthipuzha River that runs through Silent Valley, that will submerge 8.3 sq km of
untouched moist evergreen forest.

Arguments it makes for the Silent Valley Hydroelectric Project (SVPH):

● It will generate electricity for the state of Kerala with the installation of four units
of 60 MW each. (The KSEB avers that the state’s electricity requirements will not
be met without this additional power).
● Irrigate an additional 100 sq km in the Malappuram and Palakkad districts.
● Provide employment to several thousand people during the construction phase
and boost the economy of the state.

+1971 – 72: Steven Green, a scientist from the New York Zoological Society, conducts
studies on primates, especially the lion-tailed macaque in Silent Valley. Green expresses
concerns about the possible threats to the rare macaque from the project. Around the same
time, herpetologist Rom Whitaker explores Silent Valley to study the snakes of the region.
He writes a letter to the Bombay Natural History Society about the need to conserve the
Valley. Reports like these alert other naturalists.

+February 1973: The Planning Commission approves the project at a cost of about Rs 25
crores. However, due to lack of sufficient funds, implementation is delayed.

Protests begin to mount against the project.

+October 1976: National Committee on Environment Planning and Coordination (NCEPC)

sets up a task force, chaired by Zafar Futehally, to study the ecological problems that could
be precipitated by the project. Work on the project is suspended pending the task force’s
impact analysis. The Task Force recommended that the project be removed.However it
provided a loophole that stipulates that, if abandoning the project is not possible, a series of
safeguards should be implemented. Unsurprisingly, the Kerala government opts to proceed
with the project by promising to implement all safeguards. State argues that the area
submerged by the dam is only 1022 hectares, of which 150 ha is grasslands. Also argues
that only 10 percent of the ecosystem will be damaged, while ecological safeguards will
protect the rest.

Several NGOs strongly oppose the project and urge the government to abandon it.
Conservationists argue that:

● The entire lower valley will be submerged by the dam, destroying its biodiversity.
● The 10 percent loss projected by the government will actually be far worse.
● The workforce brought in for the construction of the project will reside in the area
for several years and the destruction they cause – illegal wood felling, cattle
grazing, poaching, encroaching – will destroy the Valley.

+1977: Sathish Chandran Nair visits Silent Valley. With missionary zeal he starts a
movement to create awareness in academic circles through talks and slide shows. V.S.
Vijayan of the Kerala Forest Research Institute does a study on the impact of hydroelectric
projects on the environment, and writes to the authorities not to begin the project till his
report is submitted. He is admonished and his report is suppressed.

The message of the conservationists is taken to villages and cities all over Kerala. S
Prabhakaran Nair tours the villages of north Malabar; Prof. John Jacob trains young nature
lovers. Soon Nature Clubs spring up all over the state.

Undeterred, the state government plunges ahead with the project.

The result is that the outcry against the Silent Valley Hydroelectric Project – which started
as a localized movement through individual and small group protests – goes national and
international.

+The General Assembly of the IUCN {International Union for Conservation of Nature} urges
the Government to conserve the undisturbed forest area. Many eminent people, including
conservationists and corporate and political leaders, write to the Central Government
requesting that no sanction be given to the project. These include Salim Ali, Madhav Gadgil,
CV Radhakrishnan, MS Swaminathan, Subramaniam Swamy, Sitaram Kesari, Piloo Modi
and Krishna Kant. Salim Ali writes that the project is ‘shortsighted’ and has ‘limited
objectives’. Institutions like the BNHS and Geological Survey of India ask that the area be
declared a Natural Bioreserve.

+However, then Prime Minister Morarji Desai rejects all the appeals and recommends that
the proposal begin with no delay.

+June 1979: Kerala begins the project in earnest.

+August 1979: N.V. Krishna Warrier of the Prakriti Samrakshana Samiti, Prof. Joseph John,
and P. Gopalakrishnan Nair, an advocate, filed a petition and got a stay order from the High
Court of Kerala, stopping work on the project.

+Soon after, the Silent Valley Samrakshana Samiti and Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad
started awareness campaigns with vigor. They hold protest meetings, rallies and debates all
over the state, turning the campaign into a mass people’s movement.
Famous writers from Kerala join the movement and contribute their skills: poems, plays,
stories and articles, to convey the message to the ordinary citizen.

+Meanwhile, at the Centre, Morarji Desai is replaced by Charan Singh as PM. He institutes
a Central Committee to re-investigate the issue, headed by M.S. Swaminathan, much to the
chagrin of the Chief Minister of Kerala. In a move reeking of money-backed
counter-propaganda, the State Government sets up its own panel of ‘environmentalists’ and
scientists who support the government’s views.

+January 1980: The High Court rejects the writ plea, saying that it is not for the courts to go
into the merits of scientific arguments and that it is “satisfied that the matters have received
attention before the State decided to launch the project”. Work on the project begins again
in earnest.

January 1981: Bowing to unrelenting public pressure, Indira Gandhi declares that Silent
Valley will be protected.
However – when the fine print is read – it is learned that the area under the hydroelectric
project is not covered under the protected area! When the people become aware of this
‘little detail’, hundreds of protest telegrams are sent to the Central Government. More
pressure is heaped on the government by NGOs, reputed scientists and intellectuals, and
ordinary citizens.

June 1983: the Centre re-examines the issue through a commission chaired by Prof.
M.G.K. Menon.

November 1983: the Silent Valley Hydroelectric Project is called off.

1985: Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi formally inaugurates Silent Valley National Park.

Resource mobilization:

Valley is more important than them all – the last authentic sizable evergreen forests
left.”+The role of the media: In the media too, the fight for Silent Valley marks a distinct
curve. The leading Malayalam newspapers first carry positive columns on the hydroelectric
project. By 1977, four years after the project was approved and environmentalists began
their opposition to it, the newspapers still largely carried only news of the government’s
efforts to start the project. Editorial opinion, on the rare occasions that it is expressed,
strongly supports the project and ‘development’. Some publications even take potshots at
the lion-tailed macaque, which has become a symbol of the wildlife that the
environmentalists are trying to protect in Silent Valley.

The Express, a local daily, is an exception. It carries editorials that constitute a deliberate
and strong tilt towards saving Silent Valley; it also carries a feature with a measured
argument explaining the importance of rainforests in layman’s terms.

In 1979, a slight shift in newspaper reportage was noticeable. Along with support for the
project, some newspapers raise concern for the ecological consequences of destroying the
rainforest. Malayala Manorama, a popular magazine, although inclined to view the project
favorably, opens up its letters and features columns to environmental opinions.
At first, few national newspapers consider the environment a particularly interesting subject,
and the Silent Valley battles that are raging in Kerala may well be in another continent. The
political push and shove that the project endures eventually gets the newspapers to cover
the opposition to the project. The Indian Express, with its many southern editions, is ideally
placed to pick up the issue. Its Kochi editions regularly feature Silent Valley and its concerns
– even lambasting the Morarji Desai government for approving the project.

The Hindu regularly features editorials on the subject. In August 1979, the paper carried a
full-page report on the flora and fauna of Silent Valley. The letters section of the paper
attracts several eminent people, among them Rom Whitaker, M.K. Prasad, Madhav Gadgil.
The eminent naturalist, M. Krishnan writes, “In my lifetime I have seen many fine wildlife
habitats demolished for hydel projects. Silent

More political twists and turns: Meanwhile, in Delhi, Charan Singh’s term as Prime Minister
is over in a short six months. He is replaced by Indira Gandhi. Luckily for the conservation
movement, she takes an active personal interest in the Silent Valley project, as national and
international pressure mounts.

The Resource Mobilization theory as remarked by Edwards and Mccarthy has taken form in
this movement through :

Cultural resources, Socio-organizational resources, Human resources, and Moral

resources.

As for the Collective Behaviour Theory, given by Neil Smelser - certain conditions that have
been conducive to this movement -

● Structural strain.
● Mobilization of action.