Nature lovers and eco-activists have condemned the Central government’s decision to accept the K. Kasturirangan committee recommendations for protection of the Western Ghats instead of the suggestions made by Madhav Gadgil.
The Kasturirangan report was condemned alleging it diluted Madhav Gadgil’s report and would not serve the purpose of protection the Western Ghats.
At a meeting of nature lovers and eco activists held under the banner of the Western Ghats Protection Committee in Kozhikode recently, participants led by A. Achyuthan said the decision of the government to consider only 60,000 sq km of the region as ecologically fragile would not be sufficient for the protection of Western Ghats.
Thayatt Balan, in is keynote address, warned destruction of Western Ghats would result in disasters of the type that occurred in Uttarakhand.
He sought the constitution of a Western Ghats Authority without delay.
The Western Ghats Protection Forum, in a statement, said dilution of the Professor Gadgil’s recommendations would not serve the purpose of total protection of the Western Ghats.
Already protected
This was because the 60,000 sq km region, which the Central government planned to protect, was already a protected area consisting of tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries.
The move to declare Western Ghats and its cultivated fields as an ecologically fragile region was condemned by the Catholica Congress (AKCC), led by State vice president Baby Perumalil and secretary Tony Punjakkunnel, at a press conference.
The AKCC called for rejection of the Kasturirangan recommendations, which called for 123 villages, peopled by farmers, to be declared ecologically fragile. It had already organised agitations demanding rejection of Professor Gadgil’s recommendations.
But the AKCC said it was ready to support any move to recognise as ecologically fragile zones regions other than farmlands and human habitations.
The AKCC warned it would try to damage UPA’s prospects in the coming Parliamentary polls if the government tried to impose the Kasturirangan report.
To protest against the government decision on Kasturirangan report, it decided to observe October 27 as “betrayal day” in Thalassery diocease.
Protest meetings would be organised that day in Thamarassery and Manathavadi dioceses also.
