India, May 18 -- For decades, environmental politics in Kerala lived at the fringes of power. Scientists warned about the destruction of the Western Ghats, wetlands vanished under concrete, rivers were mined and poisoned, hills were blasted open for quarries, and tourism spread recklessly across fragile landscapes.

Governments listened politely and then returned to the familiar grammar of roads, resorts, real estate and politically profitable "development". Environmentalists were treated as obstacles. Ecological concerns rarely shaped political decision-making.

That political landscape may now be changing with the rise of V D Satheesan, a politician whose public life has long carried an unusual environmental streak within Kerala's mains...