HIGH PITCH Championing Cause of Mother Earth

Any harm done to the environment affects women more, so observations across the world have shown.

- APARNA JAYASHREE

Any harm done to the environment affects women more, so observations across the world have shown. In Kerala too, it was not very different, as the Plachimada and the Endosulfan struggles have shown. Probably why in all such struggles, women have led the way.

"Environment and its care, and the manner in which human life is tuned to live in tandem with nature are best known to the women here. We had homesteads which were self-sufficient ecosystems that were also well cared for. And the women of the households knew the value of the environment and its different entities, and the nutritional and medicinal value they held which could make lives better," says Usha Soolapani, a former agriculture department employee who now runs Thanal, an NGO that promotes organic living and agro economy.

The social struggles with regard to the environment in Kerala started off with the Silent Valley movement.