A route towards sustainable survival

Grassroute is an environmental organization founded to actively involve in environmental matters like coastal protection, Mangrove restoration and maintenance of water bodies with a focus on sustainability. Headquartered in Nayarambalam, Vypin Island, Grassroute is committed to addressing all the environmental challenges of the coastal communities.

In its glorious past, the island was proud of its numerous canals, paddy farming (Pokkali, a unique local variety that grows in saline water) and fish ponds scattered around the island. The local people preserved these life-sustaining water bodies by conducting proper maintenance at regular intervals, but today most of them have disappeared. The rest have fallen into disuse from lack of attention for decades, and are filled with sedimented mud and silt. As a result, lightning floods in the island’s coastal areas during monsoon and high tide seasons are a frequent phenomenon. Grassroute plans to start its activities by reclaiming the old glory of Vypin’s canals and other water bodies that dot the island. Gradually, we hope that we can spread these efforts to other parts of Kerala.

In addition to water body revival, Grassroute has also undertaken the planting of Asiatic mangroves (Rhizophora mucronata), Sea hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus) and Indian Tulip (Thespesia populnea) stumps and Indian Almond (Terminalia catappa) seeds at Nayarambalam Veliyathamparambu and Puthen Kadappuram beaches.

Our main objectives include promoting sustainable environmental protection, raising public awareness against inadvertent dumping of plastic waste into water bodies, building a bio-fence by planting mangroves and other suitable species of plants along the shoreline, promoting alternate sustainable solutions against coastal erosion, mapping the coasts, lakes and other possible places of Kerala with the help of OpenStreetMap, and organizing environmental discussions, classes and seminars.