“There were landslips in the Western Ghats region even earlier. In 1984, there were landslips in Kodagu and again in 2019 and 2020. However, there were not so many deaths and not much attention given to the matter. But now, after hundreds of people died in the landslip at Wayanad in Kerala, discussions about my report have begun,” said ecologist Madhav Gadgil on Saturday.
He was speaking during a discussion on the Western Ghats ecosystem, organised by Parisarakkagi Naavu Balaga, a collective of environmentalists.
‘Not even studied’
Mr. Gadgil, who was the chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), also said that a wrong impression that the recommendations of his report could not be implemented had been created without even studying his report. He said that this had delayed the report’s implementation.
“The disasters in Western Ghats can be avoided if the recommendations of this report are implemented. Under the guise of tourism, a lot of development activities and construction of resorts have taken place in the sensitive and extremely sensitive regions of the Western Ghats which are causing landslips. Such activities should be prohibited,” Mr. Gadgil said.
Seconding his opinions, journalist Nagesh Hegde said that the onus to get rid of the misperceptions about the Gadgil report is on the State government.
“A five-member committee comprising a government official, an ecologist, a politician, an environment activist, and a journalist should be formed with the sole purpose of creating a simple and comprehensive summary of the Gadgil report in Kannada. Within two months, they should bring out a handbook in simple language and this should be released at the taluk level. The government should direct all panchayat members to attend these release events,” Mr. Hegde said.
He also said that all government offices in Western Ghats should compulsorily have rainwater and solar energy harvesting systems. He suggested that on the lines of coastal regulation zone (CRZ), river regulation zone (RRZ) should also be created for rivers flowing through the Western Ghats.
T.V. Ramachandra from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, said: “Studies conducted in 2009-10 revealed that the forest cover in the Western Ghats region has decreased. In two decades, and evergreen forest cover has reduced by 5 to 8%. Not only are the forests destroyed, but they are also becoming fragmented.”
Disrupted patterns
He added: “There is an imbalance in rainfall patterns and there is excessive rainfall in places where it is not supposed to occur. It is normal for Kerala to get eight months of rain and Karnataka to get four months of rain. If these patterns are disrupted and all the rainfall occurs in just one week, then it leads to landslips and the recent incident in Wayanad is evidence of it,” Prof. Ramachandra said.
