Punnapra-Vayalar agitation to the recent agitation against the conversion and filling of paddy fields.
2.2 History of Land Reclamation Transformation of paddy cultivation in Kuttanad region to its present form is invariably related to the history of the reclamation of
karappadams and
kayal lands. Reclamation activity involves the construction of
outer walls called ring bunds (puravarambu) around the particular portion of a shallow water body and draining the enclosed area by bailing water out of that enclosed portion at the beginning of every crop season. Even centuries back the process of reclamation had begun in Kuttanad. In early reclamations small strips of land were recovered from shallow areas of backwaters and river systems in Upper Kuttanad region. By the middle of the 19
th century due to the increased population pressure on land and the nonavailability of shallow backwaters suitable for reclamation, people turned toward the Vembanad lake.
15
Till the beginning of the 19
th century all the swampy uncultivated wastelands in
Travancore
were considered as government (sircar) lands. In 1818 the then government issued certain regulations allowing reclamation and cultivation of such lands. Reclamation was encouraged by providing guarantee for the possession of such lands tax free for the first ten years and thereafter levying very light taxes The
Pattom proclamation, which was issued on June 2, 1865 conferred absolute ownership rights to the riots on the reclaimed lands. Three distinct stages can be identified in the reclamation of kayal lands from the
Vembanad lake In the first stage it was carried out by private entrepreneurs without any financial support from the part of the government. In this stage reclamation and other agricultural activities were completely under the barter system of financing in which farmers received loans from
private moneylenders like the Mancombu Brahmins in terms of paddy and paid back their loans also in terms of paddy Financial constraints restricted large-scale reclamations involving huge capital investments and hence the
reclamation activities during 15
Pillai V R, Panikar PG K (1965) :
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