The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has passed a resolution strongly backing the Madhav Gadgil committee report on Western Ghats protection.
The resolution, passed at the RSS State working committee meet held in Palakkad, expressed serious concern over the threat posed by indiscriminate human intervention to the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats.
“Grama sabhas must be convened, as recommended by the Gadgil committee, and measures must be initiated after popular debates to protect the Western Ghats from quarry mafia and land grabbers. However, the interests of the farming community should be protected without hampering environment protection,” the resolution said. Catchment areas of many rivers in the Western Ghats that used to receive as much as 2,000 mm annual rainfall had already been rendered barren. Indiscriminate quarrying of granite and earth even from the peak areas of the Western Ghats had sounded the death knell of many rivers.
The resolution further called upon the Union and the State governments to “abandon the controversial Aranmula airport project that has been found anti-environment and anti-people by the National Green Tribunal and the Kerala High Court.”
