Alongside a kayal (backwaters in Malayalam), is where TP Murukesan—also known as the ‘Mangrove Man’—lives. As I reach the turning where his home is, he comes out to greet me. We head straight to the nursery, where he has been housing mangrove trees. “On an average, I tend to collect about five branches from a tree, which fall off on their own,” he says. At the recently concluded ALT EFF (All Living Things Environmental Film Festival), the three-and-a-half-minute documentary video featuring Murukesan was showcased. In the short film, Murukesan talks about what inspired him to start planting mangroves around the islets of Vypeen, Cheranelloor, and Mulavukad. In 2014, Murukesan started planting these trees that play an important role to help sustain the ecosystem of backwaters and life around them.

The inspiration behind it, he says, is his mother, and the urge to try and protect the environment because,“Our lives and livelihood depends on it.” “When my mother was around, she taught me the importance of protecting our environment, our habitat and one of the best ways to prevent flooding of coastline villages is to plant mangroves, she would say.” “This is a solution our ancestors came up with and it has been effective,” he adds.

The mangroves not just help prevent flooding; they also function as nesting grounds for fish, crabs, and turtles— fish, that eventually become a source of food and income for people. Mangroves help trap sediments and pollutants in the backwaters, making it more conducive to be used by locals. These plants also prevent soil erosion and help reduce moisture and saltiness in the air around the wetlands, thus preventing our homes from being corroded,” Murukesan says.

Shawn Sebastian, the filmmaker behind the AP (Associated Press) video that made Murukesan a local hero, says, “It is important that local communities come together to protect the environment, to conserve it.”  He adds that communities living in the region should come forth to mitigate or control climate change and conserve the region they live in. According to him, they are the custodians of the place and know more about the local flora and fauna, and can help conserve the region and its topography, its ecosystems including the myriad forms of life— big and small—which inhabit there. Sebastian believes that localised solutions are important.

33-year-old Sebastian co-founded Drokpa, a film production company with Fazal NC and Tejaswi Dantuluri— like-minded youngsters wanting to break barriers transcending language and geography to tell stories on social and environmental change. Their most recent production Faces of Climate Resilience is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. It’s a series of short videos about change makers across various regions of India including Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Kerala, showcasing innovative solutions that local communities have come up with to tackle problems like drought-induced forest fires, depleting ground-water levels and landslides caused by heavy monsoons.

Back in 2014, when Murukesan started planting mangrove trees, it coincided with L&T’s (Larsen and Turbo) CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) program, and they funded Murukesan’s efforts to plant mangroves around Vypeen. At around the same time, the government caught wind of it and started funding the 58-year-old climate crusader too.

When he started out, he would plant between 5,000- 15,000 saplings on an average in a year. And now, over the course of ten years, he has planted over 1,50,000 mangrove trees. Talking about the video by Sebastian that grabbed eyeballs—especially those of the media—Sebastian says, “I’m glad that AP’s algorithm made it possible for people to take notice of it and other news outlets reported it.” The video was part of a project by an AP climate journalism workshop that Sebastian was a part of in 2023. “They approached me to be a part of the workshop because I had done documentaries on climate change. And I chose to do a multimedia project including images and a short film on mangroves. That is how I met and got acquainted with Murukesan chettan (brother). We’ve stayed in touch regularly even after the video was filmed to discuss how more awareness can be created around the cause; we are now discussing the possibility of a long-form documentary to give it a boost,” he says.

After the video came out, people have been getting in touch; they are showing interest to help fund the efforts, Murukesan says. Organisations such as the UMAC (a Bengaluru-based aerospace company) India Foundations and the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, a non-profit, have contacted him and helped with funds to buy the bamboo and rope to put together saplings and entail help of locals to plant the saplings.

Reiterating the importance of creating more awareness on climate change and protecting the environment, Sebastian says that Drokpa Films was founded with the intention of making stories of people at the grassroots heard. The focus, he says, is on foregrounding the voices of “economically marginalised people, who are usually affected more by weather extremities.” But these days, he adds, even the affluent are impacted by climate change, which is the result of human development for about 100-200 years. “This was seen during the recent Bengaluru and Chennai floods.” Therefore, everyone should make an effort in their own capacity says the filmmaker, who has won a UN award for the short film, In The Shade of Fallen Chinar, which he made with a classmate of his from Hyderabad University, Fazil NC— the movie talked about creative expressions of Kashmiri youth amid conflict in the state.

Sebastian goes on to say that short films or 4-5 minute videos have been his style of story-telling as, “the attention span of people is shrinking. Also, Drokpa believes in smaller, intense videos to project the work or plight of people at the grassroots and evoke emotion in the viewer.” “Film can be such a powerful medium, that sometimes, just a few minutes can create a big impact,” he states.

And while the ‘Mangrove Man’s efforts have gained attention, Murukesan says, he hopes that someone would take up this cause—in terms of funds and manpower. “I am happy to do it until I die, but this incurs costs— to buy the bamboo and rope to hold soil and the sapling together in a makeshift pot made from two halves of a hollowed bamboo, transporting all the materials (bamboo and rope, mainly) from the mainland to the coastal land near the backwaters and so on. Also, I am a fisherman and a mason. So, sometimes, when a better part of my day is dedicated to planting mangrove saplings, my other jobs are stalled,” he says.

“Luckily, AP’s algorithm is what ensured that the video was widely watched, so donations came in and Murukesan’s boat now has a motor, which helps him navigate through the waters quicker. The local panchayat has also  donated about 2,000 saplings. But, more needs to be done in terms of local support. “A considerable amount of wetlands that have mangroves are owned by private home owners— they could come forth and donate more saplings. Also, the government needs to closely examine CRZ (Coastal Regulation Zone) laws closely and close any loopholes that may allow resorts to encroach upon wetlands,” says Murukesan.

Murukesan feels that the increasing numbers of the resorts encroaching wetlands is definitely a problem. “Due to frequent tidal flooding, a lot of homes end up being abandoned. These then become grounds for illicit activities like trading drugs, drug abuse and more.” The changing climate according to both Murukesan and Sebastian is also causing youngsters to move out of the region, especially abroad in search of education and employment. “I am a fisherman too, but if I had sons, I probably wouldn’t let them be fishermen, as the seas have changed— the tidal waves are more temperamental than they used to be. And this worries my family. Sometimes, once I go out into the sea for fishing, I find it difficult to return for about a week or more, especially when the weather is rough,” says Murukesan.

Another problem, Sebastian says, is people still view mangrove as a pazhchedi or a useless plant. People don’t seem to understand its environmental significance. “Awareness is of utmost importance,” he reiterates.

“The current climate change issue,” Murukesan says, “is such that everything is interconnected. Right now, drought is a problem. People might think that flooding is the issue, but it's the shortage of water that is going to be the next big problem. Everyone is tiling their yards. This is preventing water from seeping into the ground. There are fewer wells by the day, groundwater levels are going down. Water from the terrace of homes also just falls onto the tiled yards and verandahs— that isn’t being conserved either. In the name of development, people are cutting down and leveling mountains. This, in turn, is leaving the land there vulnerable, causing landslides during monsoons. It has also resulted in migration of the local Adivasi population. Wildlife like elephants are coming down to the plains in search of water and food, causing human- animal conflict. It is all connected,” he believes.

”For the average human and even for those in power, progress means buildings and more roads,” says Sebastian. Progress should be in harmony with environmental protection. But no such measures are being taken, he says, adding that the current government, after all will always think of how to get another term. So, for them, it is a delicate balance between “progress/development in terms of new buildings, offices, roads, tourism and so on and attaining this while protecting and safeguarding the environment.”

“The notions around progress and development need to change,” he concludes.