With the State reeling under the impact of climate change, including two back-to-back floods, the call for adopting sustainable development model is getting louder.
Environmental campaigners have called for a paradigm shift in the concept of development and the environment priorities of the State, as a new government will assume office in May.
V.S. Vijayan, former chairman of the Kerala State Biodiversity Board, wants the next government to strictly follow a green path when it comes to development. Its high time that the State adopted a sustainable development pattern. Green alternatives should be explored in all sectors.
Protect Ghats
Kerala needs to protect the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) report was in a way a green manifesto for the State, which did not receive the attention it required, he says.
The State is yet to have a comprehensive databank of its wetlands. There are several complaints about the manner in which it was drawn up. The State is losing large tracts of wetlands to illegal reclamation, which needs to be stopped, he says.
Compliance mechanism
Hareesh Vasudevan, a lawyer cum green activist, is more worried about the lack of compliance mechanism for environment laws in the State. There is no mechanism to ensure the compliance of green laws including the Environment Protection Act, the Coastal Regulation Zone rules and ones relating to air and water pollution control in the State, he says.
Environmental clearance is issued to factories, buildings and industrial units on the assurance that they will abide by the rules and regulations and will follow the precautionary and mitigation measures. However, no case has ever reached trial courts against the violations of the rules in the absence of compliance mechanism. The functioning of the State Pollution Control Board needs to be strengthened by adding more men and facilities to ensure the compliance of rules and regulations, he suggests.
Reorient approach
P. B. Ravi, secretary of the Kerala River Protection Council, feels that it is high time the State moved towards the concept of eco-restoration. Kerala needs to review its concepts of development and reorient its approach towards the end of ecological restoration. The eco-restoration of the Western Ghats and rivers need to be taken up on priority basis. A stage has reached where even the recommendations of the WGEEP have become inadequate to address the concerns of the State, he says.
The Climate Change Action plan needs to be updated through wider consultations, considering the two floods and other impacts of climate change, he adds.
Groundwater
It has been found that the groundwater table of the State is getting lowered after each rainy season and the rivers losing their flow. Water scarcity has become a reality for the State with 44 rivers.
The recent attempts to rejuvenate the rivers under the aegis of the Haritha Kerala Mission is found inadequate.
Kerala needs to evolve plans to ensure the rejuvenation of its rivers right from the points of its origin to its discharge into the sea, he says.
