Kozhikode man turns riverbank into 500-metre bamboo forest

Kozhikode: Every morning on the banks of the Iruvazhanji river in Mukkam, Kozhikode, crimson sunlight filters through the leaves of more than 200 bamboo trees. Walking barefoot among them is Damodaran Mukkam, the former landscaper who planted and tended the forest for the past 17 years.

The 500-metre-long bamboo stretch was born from concern. After working as a landscaper in Bahrain for over 20 years, Damodaran returned to Kerala to find his hometown transformed into an urban sprawl. The polluted, neglected state of the Iruvazhanji river troubled him most. “I felt that I had to do something,” he said.

Damodaran decided to turn the surroundings of his home into a forest. He spent nearly Rs 16 lakh from his savings, money once set aside to build a house, to create the grove. “Initially, people objected. They were of the opinion that cultivating any other crop would give me a yield unlike bamboo,” Damodaran said.

Today, the bamboo forest lines the riverbank, helping to stabilise soil, improve air quality, and bring birds and insects back to the area. For Damodaran, who knows every clump by heart, the forest is both a personal mission and a green gift to Mukkam.