Mangrove crusader Kallen Pokkudan dead

KANNUR: Veteran mangrove crusader and environmental activist Kallen Pokkudan died at a private hospital in Cherukunnu here on Sunday afternoon. He was 78.
He was admitted in the hospital following suspected food infection in the morning. His health was already weak due to liver ailment for which treatment was going on, and the end came around 3pm.
Pokkudan, also known as Kandal Pokkudan because of his passion to cultivate mangroves (known as kandal in Malayalam), began his crusade to conserve mangroves in the 1980s when he noticed the peculiar nature of the plant that grew in the marshy lands. He collected the seeds of mangroves and planted it in the marshy lands in his native Pazhayangadi.
Later he took it as a mission and started spreading the message of mangrove conservation, and also wrote a few boos including Kandakkadukalil ente jeevitham (My life in the mangrove forests), 'Ente Rashtreeya Jeevitham' (My Political Life), and 'Kandal Inangal' (Mangrove Varieties).
Though he was an active worker of the CPM, later he parted ways with the party over his ideological differences, as he felt that the party's vision was against his crusade.
An expert in mangroves and its environmental importance, his latest book, 'Kandal Inangal', is a documentation of the mangrove varieties in Kerala.
A winner of many awards for his environmental crusade, Pokkudan had also acted in a feature film, 'Papilio Buddha' directed by US-based Malayalee filmmaker Jaya Cherian.
Recently, he had started 'mangrove school' to train the young generation about the importance of mangrove conservation.