KOCHI: Even as Kochi embraces a metro to chug into future with elan, the new generation gets to know that the once the princely state had a tramway covering a distance of 49.5 miles from Chalakudy to Parambikulam through thick forests.
A new book, Cochin Forests and the British: Techno-Ecological Imperialism in India, by Dr Sebastian Joseph, assistant professor of the department of history at the UC College, Aluva, traces the rare nuggets of unknown history.
The book claimed to be the first on the environmental history of Cochin, is based on archival records kept in the regional archives of Ernakulam including Cochin Legislative Council proceedings, diaries of Raja Rama Varma XV, Budget and estimate reports and Railway files.
The Cochin Forest Tramway (CFT) was commissioned in 1907, in record seven years and worked till it was decommissioned in 1963. “The forest department of Kerala was against the continued functioning of the tramway, a narrow gauge line and pointed out that it was not economically viable,” says Dr Joseph.
“The tramway was set up under the influence of the British and the forest conservator that time was Alwar Chetty, who was trained by the Madras Presidency. It was established with certain ulterior motives like the supply of timber for the British Navy, the Railways and exports to London which were in the hands of English companies like the Aspinwall,” the book says.
“Within a short span of 15 years, the tramway became a financial headache for the native state due to maintenance costs. Cochin Legislative Council member C.A. Ouseph from Chalakudy opposed it. But the Diwan favoured it.”
“The financial burden created by the working of the tramway was solved by extending the area of timber extraction. This caused severe deforestation and in the 1920s itself, members of the Cochin Legislative Council pointed to the erratic climate in Cochin. Alongside this, we see the opening of several plantations by the Europeans in Cochin after clearing the forests. So it was a pan-Indian scheme of forest destruction happened in India at that time to cater to the needs of the British,” says the book released by Dr K. N. Panikkar earlier this month.
It also finds that the tramway became a profitable venture again during the two world wars when all sorts of timber were continuously supplied to the war front. As a consequence, during the World War Two the native state introduced rationing of firewood in Cochin for the subjects when firewood was uninterruptedly supplied for the war.
