Teacher who molds eco-friendly engineers

Dr. Thankamony of the Environmental Engineering Division of College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram (CET) has gathered ecological wisdom from her mother Devaki Amma.
Dr. Thankamony's life as a student and later as a teacher at the CET has found her green sheen waxing through years. Her persistent efforts have transformed acres of barren lands of the campus into an abode of varieties of heaving flora and fauna. Her motivation and guidance has inspired generations of engineering students to script glaring models of eco-friendliness even within the arid spheres of technologies.

Here is an excerpt from an interview, K.P. Sivakumar had with Dr. Thankamony last month at the premises of CET.


Environmental conservation inside an engineering college?

Why not? See, one who loves the nature loves everyone. If everybody loves everybody else, all the problems of the world will be solved. I'm catching them (students) young. Unlike the situation while I was a student, these days our pupils – even school students - are more interested towards the cause of conservation. I have hope in the generation. The Earth is not something we have inherited. It's a thing we have borrowed from our children. We have the commitment to return it to our children in a better condition. In order to keep it least in the present condition, environmental messages, studies and solutions should get a prominent place in the campuses. (In the photo, sitting in the first row, third from left is Dr. Thankamony)

How are the students led towards a sustainable environment?

My way is to inculcate environmentalism through the syllabi itself. We have M.Tech. Environmental Engineering and I’m taking Industrial Waste Engineering mainly, treatment of the waste water. I give practical type of problems for my students to investigate. Oxidation pond principle or the natural treatment is my favourite. This means cleaning the system with the help of water plants, fish and so on. My students have proved it successful by treating MILMA's sewage by growing the water hyacinth. The growing hyacinth plants were regularly removed from the system and were used either for mulching or as manure.

Another thing was the waste water treatment of the campus canteen. A model was set up and one third of the waste water was treated. As a result, the dissolved oxygen level was raised to 4mg/litre from 0, a level enough to grow fish. It was as part of their study that my students renovated the local pond Anathaichira – a very big pond. We have also studied on the potentials of Vellayani lake to be used as a water resource for Thiruvnanathapuram city and about the excess water that flow through the Karamana river. In 1999, our B.Tech. students have done a project on the menacing floods of Thampanoor during rains. They have identified some places where this water has to be stored and later to be pumped out. See, even as the authorities make much din over rainwater harvesting and all, a modest rain leaves Thampanoor in a bad shape.

While teaching architecture students I stress on water conservation. Kerala soil, except in waterlogged Kuttanad, has the capacity to store whatever amount of rain water that fall. My recent assignment for them is to identify places within this campus from where water is wasted. Our ultimate aim is to ensure that the whole rain that falls in our campus will be conserved in our campus itself.

Left: The front view of CET in 1964 lacks any plantation in its premises. Right: Dr. Thankamony's effort has successfully changed the picture. The campus is now as green as a jade.

About building a green blanket for the CET campus?

It was in 1975, during our time that we started greening the campus. When I joined here, there were only a few trees and a conspicuous biodiversity was absent. In front of our staff room was a courtyard, devoid of any vegetation. I felt it bad to keep a courtyard as bare as it was, because at my home, we had a traditional Nalukettu and Ettukettu with a central courtyard that had the cooling freshness owing to many trees and plants. This kindled me the idea of planting trees in the campus. Exquisite traditional plants including Paarijaatham, Pavizhamalli, Gandharaajan were grown. Soon the courtyard turned into a green corner. Since the soil was hard laterite, earlier the rain water used to collect here for days. But now, the thickly populated plants have offered a spongy top soil that absorbs water even during torrential rains. This canopy now attracts so many birds too and even has a nest of the tailor bird. It's the second time the tailor bird is building the nest here. [Dr. Thankamony pauses for a while to enjoy butterflies zigzagging from one flower to the other.]

Left: The campus without a green cover during Dr. Thankanony's studentship in 1975. Rght: Same spot with ample trees as in 2005.

Your students have even published a book on the birds?

Surely. Titled, 'Feathered friends of our campus', it is indeed a very beautiful book and so many people have appreciated it. The production was something very professional. The photos were taken by our own students. Many people couldn't believe the quality of the book's production. Somebody even wondered whether our campus was really an abode to this much varieties of birds. Success with the bird census has now prompted us to start a butterfly survey. A checklist for 52 types has already been prepared. We have also identified trees and labeled them. It is now gratifying for us to see that several other campuses are following our suit.

About modern landscaping, architecture?
These days, landscaping means only few palm-type trees which don't shut their leaves and the carpet grass. This lacks the biodiversity concept. Birds, butterflies and other natural system would be attracted to your lawns only if there is a biodiversity concept in landscaping. Even a weed has got it's own significance - I believe.

It is a treasured memory for Dr. Thankamony that she could win Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Award a national honour for tree lovers, for the year 2002 and accompany her mother Devaki Amma (Right), who bagged the same title for 2003, for receiving the award from the same function held in New Delhi in the year 2005.

Mother has been an inspiration?

My mother has shown me that environmental conservation need not require scientific knowledge or technological backup, if we have the traditional wisdom. With the lore handed down by the past generations, she has been doing her best to keep our home and its surroundings as green as possible. The national recognition, Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Award was conferred to me and my mother respectively in 2002 and 2003. Both these awards were issued in 2005 in Delhi. It was a sublime experience for me to accompany my mother – my first environmental master – for receiving this top recognition. It was a proud moment.

To the latest, in recogniton of the valuable models established by her in the CET for better rainwater harvesting, Palathulli Award instituted by the largest circulated Malayala Manorama daily was presented to Dr. Thankamony by the Kerala Chief Minister, V.S. Achuthanandan.

Response from colleagues, students, others?

Good response, good response. Earlier we had got two awards from the Friends of Trees – one for our sandalwood and the other for Asoka tree. But the national award could catch everyone's eye. Even those who were cynical of my love for flora and fauna changed their approach. With this award, I got students of different conservational tastes together. This marked the beginning of our environmental club. There are still a section of people who frown on our plantations. They want this forest-like appearance to be cleared. Nonetheless there are magnanimous individuals like poetess and unflagging environmentalist Sugathakumari, who wrote an article praising our humble efforts. Once while sitting at our eco-corner, she told she didn't want to leave the cool of our campus. Our national award inscription also has a reference to the cool micro climate of our campus. And what we have observed is that this eco-corner is much cooler than other localities of our campus.

Photo: Seeking the same green shade: Poetess Sugathakumari (left) was an unforgettable visitor to the Environmental Club at CET.

Weighing a mango: facts and figures

Mango trees are natives of southern Asia that offers the best of tropical climate for their growth. From here they were migrated to other parts of the world, say for example, to California only in 1880.

Mango trees love a hot dry climate of around 40C. Their thick and dark green leaves have enormous power to keep the atmosphere clean and cool. Mango fruits are juicy and fibrous. A ripe mango contains about 15% sugar, up to 1% protein, and significant amounts of Vitamins A, B and C. Moreover, fibrous food is always good for intestine.

Mango trees love sunlight and aeration. In turn, a full-grown mango tree can provide commendably dense shade. This ultimately attracts squirrels and several birds to its verdant branches. They can grow in sandy, loam or clay soils with pH 5.5 to 7.5. Their roots go very deep in search of nutrition.

India is the largest producer of mangoes with 10.8 million tons from total 16million hectares of cultivation. Among the Indian States, Andhra Pradesh tops the list with 350000 hectares of mango farming.

Langra and Himsagar of Uttar Pradesh, Malda of West Bengal, Alphonso of Karnataka are the lead brands in India. Banganapalli, Bombay, Bombay Green, Chausa, Dashehari, Fazli, Fernandian, Himsagar, Kesar, Kishen Bhog, Mallika, Mankurad, Mulgoa, Neelum, Pairi, Suvarnarekha, Totapuri, Vanraj, Zardalu, Bangalora and Gulabkhas are others in the row.

-Prepared by Akhila S. Nair after gathering information from various sources on mangoes.

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Mango now a green tale

Former Senior Editor of India Today and Indian Express, Govindan Kutty, after witnessing a mango fest in Bangalore generously wrote to us sparking a few ecological thoughts. Mango is an icon, an article of food and faith says Mr. Govindan Kutty who believes that ecology is more than a matter of health or heritage. In a tropical nation like ours, where mango trees are born, his faith should get more supporters.

How much secure are mango trees in the yards of Kerala? Ever burgeoning consumerism has become a sharpened axe to break the indelible affinity that existed for a long time between the people of Kerala and trees.

In this State, everything is commercial and nothing is sustainable. Paddy fields now earn more than before – not by way of sowing and reaping, but by filling and building villas. Courtyards are more green – not due to mango and Neem trees, but with carpet grass and croton plants. Avenues have more shades – not that of trees, but of electric posts.

While in Kerala, do not expect a mango fair to be held in a traditional farm yard. Rustic market places are devoid of any gathering of peasants who arduously earned their fruits. Instead, what you see in abundance today, even in villages, are expanding chains of super markets. Go to the nearest branch of a supermarket giant. There you find plastic signboards with attractive images of mangoes. On one corner of the state-of-the art mall, you find mangoes of different kinds displayed as valuable commodities. Never doubt on the quality or price – each mango bears a sticker denoting OK and its price. You purchase these juicy 'artifacts' in plastic carry bags. The glass doors of the super shop automatically open wide showing you the way out. While eating slices of mangoes never forget that you are proudly gulping pieces of an up-to-the minute culture.

Affectionate grandmas who insisted to offer slices of mangoes to grandchildren and serve delicious pickles for our feasts are still alive. They do not walk beyond the boundaries of mushrooming old-age homes. Even in the premises of such twilight's homes, you rarely find a mango tree. When nostalgia pricks his inflated sentiments, a Keralite vents his emotions by going to the next super market to find if there are still more mangoes to buy.

- Prepared by K.P.Sivakumar, inspired by a message received from Govindan Kutty, former senior editor, India Today and Indian Express.

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Gonu, a climate pickpocket

The severe cyclone that has hit the coast of Oman and put the shores of Persian Gulf under sheer threat after claiming several lives, has become a pickpocket who had fled with considerable part of Kerala's monsoon rains. Even while typing this note, Thiruvananthapuram, the Capital city of this southern State of India remains hot and dry. Whereas June 8 is never supposed to be a day of sunshine as it is.

June, for Keralites, is a month that finds monsoon in its full vigour. There has been a custom belief that when schools re-open after summer vacation, monsoon showers will be there for sure, to wet the students who march to school and back, wearing the newest of their uniforms and bags. But this didn’t' happen even after a week of beginning the so-called monsoon month.

This late monsoon is meteorologically attributed to the formation of the big cyclone, Gonu. Gonu was described as the strongest tropical cyclone on record in the Arabian Sea. If the monsoon is already too late to cool the southern shores of Kerala, Gonu has swiftly spelled catastrophic effects taking the lives of many along the coasts of Oman, U.A.E., Pakistan and Iran. The cyclone had double the speed of express trains running in Kerala, i.e., about 240km/hour.

The deep depression over the East Central Arabian Sea, that has obviously unshackled Gonu, has badly affected the progress of Indian monsoon, if to go by the met reports.

India Meteorological Department's (IMD) Deputy Director General (Weather Forecasting), A.B.Majumdar (मजुमदार) has said during a press brief that the depression could move along the North-Westward and delay the further movement of much-longed monsoon.

Any way, an advanced and augmented monsoon is the best thing for the sweating Indian farmers to hope. Good monsoon means better yields for cotton, soybean, groundnut and rice.

A recent statement by the IMD said that the monsoon had lashed the coastal Kerala on May 28. But where actually the showers are? People of Thiruvananthapuram ask. If monsoon was in its full stream, media here would have already been flooded with news of flood-related destructions. But what floods in the Kerala media now is the resurgence of chickun gunya and other communicable diseases. Today alone 11 persons lost their life owing to fever in the southern district of Pathanamthitta. Another startling scene is the unusually fierce sea erosion along the coasts of the State.

The global devils of warming and climatic changes already have their share on the natural settings of Kerala. It seems, amid this chaos, Gonu like a pickpocket, has taken away a good part of the State's monsoon rains too. And quite pathetically Keraliltes, particularly the dwellers of its Capital city, join their State bird Hornbill and gaze skyward, thirsty of rain.

-Prepared by K.P.Sivakumar after observing trends in the climate of Thiruvananthapuram.

Estrogen thoughts for the Environment Day

On the World Environment Day, Gandhi Bhavan, the auditorium attached to the Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Kerala had a pithy message resounding. Reverberating inside the hall and echoing in the minds of students and teachers gathered there was grave information on yet another debilitating environmental factor.

The talk by Dr. R.V. Thampan former Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology and present Director of SAFI Institute of Advanced Studies, Malapppuram, Kerala had taken the attention of all listeners to a pertinent environmental menace of the present: Environmental Estrogens and their effects in the living world. The talk was part of the H. H. Maharani Sethu Parvathi Bayi Lecture of the University of Kerala. Really our Department was fortunate this year to get this dialogue by an eminent scientist like Dr. Thampan.

Environmental Estrogens: Unsolicited intruders
Interfering other's life or freedom is never a welcome habit. However Estrogens naturally or artificially produced in the environment badly affects our hormonal activities. Imagine how it would be if our neighbours intervene in our family matters – or else, countries interfering in each other's internal matters! The Environmental Estrogens have a number of synonyms (or sobriquets!) including xenoestrogens, endocrine disrupters, endocrine modulators and environment hormones and in a broader sense, 'Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals' or EDCs.

Chief culprits – chemical and non-chemical
Quite interestingly, Dr. Thampan called the compounds in our environment that generate EDCs as 'culprits'! Of course, it's difficult to find more moderate word to describe these elements that cause lasting agony to living beings. Fungi to Soybeans and Pesticides to Contraceptive pills come under this culprit group. If they are the chemical culprits, non chemical reasons like light waves, electromagnetic fields, and oxygen deficient environs also destabilize hormonal activities. For example, distorted estrogen and androgen levels are found in fish that survive in oxygen-poor water, Dr. Thampan said. Genistein of Soybeans, Resveratrol of the grape skin, Zearalanone found in fungi could evoke hormonal imbalances, it is proved. Endosulfan – the pesticide that has turned the life harrowing for the people of Kasaragode district in Kerala, has an estrogenic activity similar to DDT, Dr. Thampan pointed.

An apple a day…, but for how long?

Vegetarians won't be happy to see the face of this truth: many plants produce chemicals called phytoestrogens that mimic or interact with hormone signals in animals! Dr.Thampan's projector slides said that at least 20 of such phytohormones have been identified in at least 300 plants from over 16 plant families! Garlic, soybeans, date, pomegranates, cherries and apples become villains – at least in front of this fact. Solace is that phytoestrogens are comparatively weaker. Another grave reality unveiled during the dialogue was that infants who are more used to soy products are 10 time more vulnerable to phytoestrogens than vegetarian adults. [In the U.S., 15% of babies are fed on soy formula.]

Men and beasts fall prey

Do men only fall prey to phytoestrogens? Not really. A number of grazers that feed on grasses, particularly the Australian sheep were found to have reproductive defects infertility problems owing to intake of phytoestrogens. Attributing to Setchell et. al., Dr. Thampan told a real story of captivated cheetahs that had the incidence of infertility while soy food only was provided. Normalcy was reinstated among them when soy was replaced by corn!

Organometal tributyltin (TBT), a constituent of special paints used to get rid of barnacles that accumulate beneath ships and boats, has caused development of male reproductive organ in mollusks along the coastal areas. As a result, population of marine snails has decreased considerably along the coasts of Europe, North America and Asia.

Sex change – black magic by EEs
Another tale of sexual change came from the sewage outlets in England: male fishes there showed feminine characters, with their testes producing comparatively lower levels of motile sperms. Even some had low profile sperms in one of the testes and egg in the other. This may be mostly due to natural and synthetic estrogens and the alkylphenols deposited due to disintegration of household detergents and breakdown of plastic.

Jump to Illinois and there we find another startling fact: frog population is on a serious threat owing to increased occurrence frogs with testes carrying eggs. Dr. Thampan underlined a very significant point: Frogs have very permeable skin and are comparatively sensitive to changes in water and environment making them more vulnerable to the environmental estrogen attack.

Learning late
Surprisingly, it took long 40 years for the scientists to understand the bad effects of a drug called diethyl stilbestrol (DES) popular till then. Mothers who had been taking DES during pregnancy gave birth to sons and daughters, who later met with severe cases of reproductive disorders. The dioxin catastrophe that shook the world during June 1976 in Italy also threw generations into a dismally deteriorated health state.

A synonym to HIV?

If to go by the realities unveiled by the lecture, environmental estrogens are found to play the same foul trick as HIV viruses do with human immune system. For example, Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals found heavily in the meats of seals and whales were found adversely affecting people along the Canada's arctic circles. Here people depend mainly on these marine food and are prone to poor immunity and cancer problems.
As the talk progressed towards a motivating conclusion, unfurled one after the other were the deteriorating fate of water fouls and seals amid a sea of environmental estrogens.

Control in all phases of life

To root out environmental estrogens from the world may not be possible. But to adopt proactive measures to curb their multiplication is possible for sure. In short, the message sent to humanity by environmental estrogens is this: learn to have an ecological prudence and self-control in all our activities – from eating to medicating.

- Prepared by Akhila S. Nair based on a talk made by Dr. R.V.Thampan

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A humble effort begins...

Here begins our humble effort. A passionate endeavour to express to the fullest power of language known to us, about our dreams and aspirations on Mother Nature. We would write what we see, hear and listen. We would share what resounds in our conscience. EcoMagazine should be a fortnightly - or else it should have at least two insertions a month - we sanguinely hope. With great expectations, EcoMagazine starts its journey from Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala, INDIA!

We are: K.P.Sivakumar having a mind inclined to the environmental cuases and Akhila S. Nair a Research Scholar with the Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Kerala.