The Prakruthi Samrakshana Samithi, a leading environmental organisation here, has said that undiluted implementation of the Gadgil committee report is the only solution for the protection of the Western Ghats.
The Samithi leaders, in a press meet here on Friday, urged the State government to reject the K. Kasturirangan committee report completely and stall the public hearing by the State-level Oommen V. Oommen panel. The Gadgil committee report was a comprehensive and scientifically prepared report on the Western Ghats and how to protect them without disturbing the inhabitant population, while the Kasturirangan report was an unscientifically watered down version of the same prepared in a hurry, they said. “What the authorities should do immediately is to make the Malayalam translation of the Gadgil committee report freely available to all the stakeholders to read and discuss,” T.V. Rajan, chairman of the Samithi, said.
The recommendations of the Gadgil report were not adverse to the farmers or the tribal people in the region. It was a very transparent report aimed at ensuring sustainable development in the region, they said.
The Samithi members, who claimed that a journey they recently undertook along the Western Ghat regions was frighteningly revealing, said the State would be heading towards danger if political parties and the government played into the hands of a group of “misguided” and “sightless” segment in society led by the mining and the land mafia.
Samithi secretary Ramesh Babu said the government and all the major political parties in the State should introspect on their stand on the issue.
The Samithi members said a conference of all environmental organisations and eco-movements from the State would be held in Kozhikode on December 27 to consolidate their support for the Gadgil report.
