As little Adhinav (Rithu) makes his way down toward the riverbank in Pulininna Kaala, a village tucked inside the Theviyarukunnu forest region of Aryanad, he carries a toy gun with him. He pretends to take aim at the elephant and wild boar that often wander into the fields, destroying crops. But unlike humans, animals cannot act as if they’ve been hit at the sound of a tiny gunshot echoing from a child’s throat.

Pulininna Kaala, part of the Aruvikkara assembly constituency, stretches along the banks of the Karamana River, which brings fresh water from Peppara to Thiruvananthapuram city. Yet for the villagers here, life is shadowed by dry wells that yield no water, even when dug deep. A long-promised water supply project was launched here years ago, but it remains unfinished, mired in disputes and legal wrangles. If the summer turns even slightly harsher, locals will be forced to draw water directly from the river.

Along the path to the waterbody lies a dried-up elephant dung, barely a few days old. Residents here are far more familiar with the elephants, wild buffalo, wild boar, and deer that roam these woods than with the elected officials who visit only occasionally. According to S Binu and Thangappan Kani, the current and former heads of the settlement respectively, these animals often trample entire crop fields before vanishing back into the forest.

Even the Karamana River itself seems to encroach upon the village. Local residents Jayakumar, Biju Kumar, Surya, and Akhilya say that the deep trenches visible near their settlements are the result of the river gradually `eating away' more than an acre of land where rubber and coconut trees once stood. Along these eroded paths, children like Rithu and Devananda are forced to walk every day.