Setting out southwards along Main Central Road beyond Thiruvalla, a township in Pathanamthitta, a vacant plot of land with truckloads of sand comes into view. ‘River sand with passes for sale’, reads a banner that hangs on a tree nearby.
Ordinary it may seem, but the image offers a jarring contrast to another board that stands just a few 100 meters away. It declares that the second phase of rejuvenation of the Varattar , a river that has long ceased to flow, is under progress here.
The nine-km waterbody, a tributary of the Pampa that meanders through the three grama panchayats of Eraviperoor, Kuttoor, and Thiruvanvandoor and Chengannur municipality in Alappuzha, used to be the lifeline of people in the region and acted as a natural flood control mechanism between the Pampa and Manimala rivers, carrying the excess water during the monsoons.
