Every monsoon, a quiet menace surges across India’s waterways, turning glistening rivers, backwaters and lakes into green deserts. This threat is the water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), an innocuous-looking aquatic plant which has delicate lilac flowers that belies its destructive power. Nowhere is its impact more pervasive than in Kerala — a State renowned for its intricate network of backwaters and the famed Vembanad Lake.
Introduced in India during colonial rule as an ornamental plant, the water hyacinth’s prodigious growth has since overwhelmed the very ecosystems and communities it decorates. Today, it is estimated that over 2,00,000 hectares of inland waters nationwide have been smothered by this weed, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of countless Indians.
Crisis in Kerala
Farmers and fishermen are among the hardest hit. For paddy cultivators along the Kuttanad region of Kerala — known as the ‘rice bowl of Kerala’ — water hyacinth mats block irrigation channels, impede water flow, and choke fields, driving up the costs and efforts required to sustain agriculture. Fishermen find their traditional trade impossible as the dense mats strangle fish nurseries, undermine native fish populations, block access, and even damage nets and boats.
Worse, water hyacinth devastates aquatic biodiversity. By preventing sunlight and oxygen from penetrating the water’s surface, these floating jungles suffocate everything below. Aquatic flora and fauna, already fighting pollution and over-extraction, are now forced to contend with ecological asphyxiation, unravelling entire food webs. The weed’s unchecked proliferation is a direct threat to ecotourism as well. Vembanad Lake, a Ramsar-recognised wetland of international importance and a lifeline for lakhs of people, is emblematic of this crisis, with tourism and transport now at risk.
Yet, the hidden danger of the water hyacinth extends beyond livelihoods and biodiversity. As the plant rapidly accumulates and then decays, it releases methane — a greenhouse gas over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat.
Experiments that must be scaled up
Recognising the need for solutions, innovators and communities across India have experimented with turning this ‘pest’ into a resource. In Odisha, imaginative women’s self-help groups skilfully weave water hyacinth into handicrafts, baskets and furniture. In Assam and West Bengal, it has been transformed into paper and biogas production.
These experiments, though promising, remain isolated in scope and scale. What is urgently required is policy support, financial incentives and a robust value chain to scale them up.
Despite the creativity at the grass-roots, what is missing is a coordinated policy thrust in the effective management of the hyacinth menace. Currently, responsibility is diffused across multiple government departments — agriculture, fisheries, environment, irrigation — often leading to piecemeal and short-term efforts. The situation demands a single-point accountability mechanism and a national policy with region-specific implementation strategies. There is a need for coordinated removal drives using scientific methods and mechanisation with appropriate technology suited to local conditions in places such as Kerala where labour is not easily available. Innovators need to be incentivised and private sector partnerships established for value addition. Research into viable products (crafts, biofuels, compost textiles) also needs to be promoted and disseminated.
Solving the water hyacinth crisis is a mammoth task, but it is by no means insurmountable. Recently, Jain University in Kochi organised a brainstorming workshop under its Future Kerala Mission, bringing together experts, grass-roots practitioners, policymakers and businesses to reimagine water hyacinth as a bearer of sustainable livelihoods — rather than just viewing it as a pest.
The University has since decided to launch an awareness campaign and to release a discussion paper, inviting inputs that incorporate scientific and local knowledge systems. By fusing academic research, policy engagement, and community experience, the University hopes to spur a shift from sporadic experiments to systematic, sustainable solutions.
Need for united action
India’s rivers and lakes are too precious to be stifled by neglect — or by a single invasive plant. The water hyacinth menace calls for urgency, accountability and united action. Let every community, government department, entrepreneur and citizen recognise that this is not just an ecological problem but a crucible for rural livelihoods, food security, climate resilience and a green economy.
Let us, together, drain the swamp — not just of water hyacinth, but of the inertia that allows such a menace to flourish. The time for action is now.
Venu Rajamony is Chairman, Future Kerala Mission, Jain (deemed to be) University, Kochi and a former Ambassador of India to the Netherlands
Published – August 15, 2025 12:08 am IST