Kerala - Kozhikode   

Protect the wetlands, says Minister

Photo: S.R.K.

Product-check: Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran at the Vengeri wholesale market in the city on Tuesday.

KOZHIKODE: Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran has said that there should be efforts to protect land and water.

Inaugurating the district-level programmes of the National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA) here on Tuesday, Mr. Ratnakaran said that the idea of protecting the wetlands had gained currency of late. The government had brought in the Kerala paddy field and wetland conservation Bill to protect the paddy fields. Protection of wetlands should be taken up, he said.

Groundwater levels had gone down in the three grama panchayats of Mullankolli, Pulpally and Koothali in Wayanad district and these were the three panchayats which had witnessed the maximum number of suicides in the district. “If we should know who we are, we should know our soil. The Agriculture Department has hence come out with a slogan ‘Ellavarum Padethekku,’ (everyone to the paddy field),” the Minister said.

He said that unscientific development had resulted in loss of wetlands. “We knew more about IT, but little about paddy,” he said. P. Viswan, MLA, presided over the programme.

A total of 12,400 hectares have already been brought under the NWDPRA project in the district in the eighth, ninth and tenth Five Year Plans. A total of 5,900 hectares under Kurichikkara and Ramallur Thodu were selected for the project in the eleventh Plan. A total of Rs.7.08 crore would be spent on the entire area during the plan period.

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