Public hearing soon on ‘Green Hunt'

March 23, 2010 03:30 pm | Updated 03:30 pm IST - SHIMLA

Noted environmentalist Vandana Shiva on Monday said her organisation ‘Navdanya' is planning to arrange a three-day public hearing from April 9 to 11 in New Delhi against the joint counter-naxal operation ‘Green Hunt' launched by the Union Home Ministry.

She accused multinational companies of eying natural resources in tribal areas and trying to gain access to them by flushing out naxalites with the help of the State. Expressing concern over illegal mining and allotment of hundreds of hydel projects and construction of cement plants in Himachal, she said there was an immediate need for strengthening and corroborating the scattered peoples' movements in the area.

She advised the people to file a PIL on the lines of the famous Doon Valley limestone case. Quarrying of limestone had to be stopped following a Supreme Court order on the PIL, thus helping the region regain its ecological balance. Ms. Shiva, who was here to attend a conference on Himalayan environment, said the virgin lands of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand should be saved from MNCs such as Cargill and Monsanto which are ready to drain the tribal lands out of their natural resources. The need of the hour is to make the hill States totally organic , she said.

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