Leading environmentalist R.K. Pachauri on Saturday said the Centre’s rejection of the Pachauri Committee report on the Sethusamudram project was “obviously mired in political expediency”. Mr. Pachauri is Director-General of The Energy and Research Institute of India and chairperson of the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change
Delivering the address at the 18 convocation of the Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME) here on Saturday, he said the project, which involved the construction of a shipping canal cutting through the southern tip of India, was deeply enmeshed in politics and debate.
Mr. Pachauri said he found it “shameful” that a purely technical, ecological and economic issue had been overwhelmed by “crass political considerations”. He said he had stated clearly in the findings that the project managers had not taken into account the impact of climate change and sea-level rise simply because that would have involved a very rigorous exercise involving climate modelling.
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Dr. Pachauri said that after he submitted the report to the government, he was informed that the decision would be passed on to the Supreme Court and further project evaluation carried out. “But, I was completely taken aback when, some months later, the media reported that the report had been rejected by the government. This occurred without even the courtesy of a discussion or assigning reasons on why such a step had been taken.”