The Cardamom Growers Association (CGA), an organisation of cardamom planters, will launch an indefinite agitation against the move to announce Cardamom Hill Reserve (CHR) as an Ecologically Significant Area.
Addressing mediapersons here on Tuesday, office-bearers of the association said that the two-day meeting by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), under the Union Ministry of Environment, that began on Tuesday at Thrissur was aimed at declaring CHR areas as ecologically sensitive. The other 15 areas identified as ecologically sensitive in the Western Ghats were in the forest, they said. The move to club CHR with them would have a negative impact on cardamom cultivation, they said.
“If the 86,500 hectares of cultivated area under the CHR is declared ecologically sensitive, no construction will be allowed in them. This will affect sectors allied to cardamom cultivation,” said CGA executive secretary K.K. Devasia.
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According to him, there is a “hidden agenda” in the move as there are laws already to protect of environment in the CHR, which did not allow shifting of cultivation from cardamom to other crops, cutting of trees, or taking up of major construction works.
“It is a move to bring CHR under the Forest Department,” said K.J. Augusthy, general secretary of the association. “Now, CHR comes under the purview of the Revenue Department. If it is declared ecologically sensitive, there will be strict rules regarding ecological protection,” he added.