The Union environment ministry is expected to approve the K Kasturirangan panel report on Western Ghats and declare around 60,000 square kilometers of the southern hills — spanning across six states — as no-go area for mining, thermal power plants and heavily polluting industries. A disaster waiting to happen. According to this report, 90% of the natural forests in the Western Ghats complex - adding up to 60,000 sq kilometers and constituting 37% of the entire hilly belt —to be conserved under the Ecological Sensitive Area provisions of the green law. The forest area falling within the ESA would also cover 4,156 villages across six states. But it does not recommended a ban on hydroelectric projects, dams and other such projects which are one of the biggest threats to the ecology of the region and all such projects will require prior-informed consent and no-objection from the Gram Sabha (village council) of these villages which we suspect would not be very difficult to get. Now, 60,000 sq. km. does sound like a big achievement but you need to look at the big picture. The Western Ghats stretches upto 1,29,037 sq. km. and if you do the calculation this is not even 50% of the whole area. tpgindia.in/blog/an-open-letter-to-mr-kasturirangan-by-prof-madhav-gadgil/
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 05:34:08 +0000
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