Villagers oppose move to permit quarrying

Radhakrishnan Kuttoor PATHANAMTHITTA
The Hindu, March 13, 2016 

The People’s Action Council has taken strong exception to a move by the grama panchayat to permit resumption of granite quarrying on the environmentally fragile Chembanmudy hill in Naranamoozhy panchayat in Ranni taluk.

Action council convener Shaji Pathalil told The Hindu that the panchayat had decided to seek legal opinion on the request submitted by a quarry owner to resume granite quarrying at Chembanmudy. Mr. Shaji the panchayat’s move to consider the request to resume granite quarrying at Chembanmudy, in violation of various laws and rules pertaining to it as well as Western Ghats protection, was an anti-environment and anti-people act.

Chembanmudimala, stands 3,825 ft. above mean sea level. The unabated illegal operation of two giant granite quarries and crusher units in this environmentally fragile hilly tracts for about a decade was brought to a halt three years ago following strong public protest against it.

The hazardous silica dust flying from the quarry also posed a major health hazard in the locality. There was a rise in incidence of cancer as well as skin and and lung ailments in the Chembaoly-Vakamukku areas .

The villagers had organised themselves and resorted to direct action to protect themselves from the ill-effects of the illegal granite quarries and crusher units following the alleged denial of justice to them by the people’s representatives as well as the official machinery three years ago.

Mr. Shaji said an expert team attached to the Geological Survey of India had categorically stated in 2013 that no granite quarrying should be permitted at Chembanmudy without attending to the future threats and corrective measures.

During his visit to the affected area in 2013, Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel chairman Madhav Gadgil too had strongly opposed quarrying at Chembanmudy

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Western Ghats: five States yet to submit reports

Divya Gandhi
Bangalore

The Hindu, August 7, 2014 

The six Western Ghats States have just two days to meet the August 9 deadline to submit their “ground-truthing” reports on Eco Sensitive Areas (ESA).

However, barring Kerala, none of the States has responded to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), which, according to some environmentalists, betrays more than just bureaucratic inefficiency.

MoEF letter

The MoEF letter was sent out two months ago asking States to corroborate at the village-level, the findings of the Kasturirangan committee report (which had relied largely on satellite imagery).

The Kasturirangan report last year had identified 59,940 sq.km (37 p.c.) of the Western Ghats as ESA: regions where activities such as mining and thermal plants should be banned.

Not formed panels

Karnataka, which has the largest share of the Western Ghats identified as ESA, has not even formed the committees that will conduct surveys at district-level, according to sources in the State’s Environment Department.

As for Goa, the Chief Minister has written to the MoEF asking for more time citing the “rainy season” for their inability to conduct the exercise, said Joint Secretary MoEF, Ajay Tyagi.

Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have not yet submitted their reports, he added.

According to environmentalist Madhav Gadgil, “States are deliberately avoiding the exercise of ground-truthing because it will not serve vested interests.”

Prof. Gadgil chaired the expert panel that authored the 2012 report on Western Ghats ESA, which the government rejected in favour of the Kasturirangan report in 2013. “This just makes it clear that vested interests dominate State governments as much as they do the Union government,” he alleged.

The concept of ESAs in the Western Ghats has been a contentious one. Kerala, for instance, had expressed its objections to the Kasturirangan committee recommendations that brought 13,108 sq.km under ESA. In its draft notification of March 10, MoEF reduced the geographical area of ESA in Kerala to 9,993.7 sq.km.

The draft notification identifies 56,825 sq.km as ESA in total, with Karnataka accounting for 20,668 sq.km.

In its response to the draft notification, Karnataka agreed to ban mining in ESA, but not quarrying or sand extraction as “a total ban will affect local development and livelihoods very adversely”. The State also called for a reduction in the extent of ESA.

 

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Gadgil report pro-people: expert

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,  

The Hindu, June 2, 2014

V.S. Vijayan, Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) member, said here on Sunday that it was the failure on the part of the government to clear the misconceptions among the people about the Madhav Gadgil Committee report that had resulted in hostility towards its recommendations.

Speaking at a seminar on the protection of the Western Ghats, organised by the Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram, Dr. Vijayan said one could only speculate about the reason why the government had failed to allay the fears of the people about the Gadgil Committee recommendations.

People, for instance, mistook ‘Ecologically Sensitive Areas’ mentioned in the report for ‘Ecologically Fragile Lands’, which had stricter rules regarding their preservation.

The Gadgil Committee report aimed at protecting the Western Ghats which benefited some 28 crore people living in six States.

In contrast, the Kasturirangan Committee report would benefit only miners and industrialists. Many of its action items were easy to evade because they were not restricted by time, acting merely as suggestions and not directives, he said.

Inaugurating the seminar, poet Sugathakumari said “it is sad that the Gadgil report could not be communicated to the people in time and it is even sadder that false information was conveyed causing huge loss to a fine action plan.”

Plea to KSBB

She hoped that the Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB) would take a strong stand to safeguard the Kerala Conservation of Paddy and Wetlands Act, 2008.

Kasturirangan panel member and KSBB chairman Oommen V. Oommen said the Gadgil committee’s failure lay in not consulting government bodies or holding proper discussion with the people when formulating its recommendations.

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Western Ghats: fresh round of consultations recommended

Bangalore,  
The Hindu, May 4, 2014

Calling for “reconciliation” between the two fairly divergent and much-debated reports on the Western Ghats — the first by a panel headed by ecologist Madhav Gadgil and second by a committee led by Planning Commission member K. Kasturirangan — scientist R. Sukumar has said another round of consultations should pave the way to resolving the issue.

Talk held

Neither report had been accepted by Karnataka or Kerala, he said while speaking on ‘Western Ghats: confusion over conservation?’ here on Saturday.

Prof. Sukumar, who is a member of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel headed by Prof. Gadgil, said that a fresh round of consultations “is the responsibility” of the Union and State governments. The talk was organised by the Indian Institute of Public Administration (Karnataka regional branch).

The Kasturirangan committee could have “refined” or “modified” the Gadgil report but instead “threw out our report and came up with an entirely new one”.

The major difference in the two reports was on the extent of ecologically sensitive area (ESA) that each recommended, Prof. Sukumar said.

While the Gadgil report sees the entire Western Ghats as ESA (under three levels of protection), the Kasturirangan report suggests 37 per cent of the total area be brought under ESA.

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Eco-sensitive areas of Western Ghats to be prioritised

K. S. Sudhi
KOCHI,  
The Hindu, March 7, 2011 

The ecologically sensitive areas of Western Ghats, the hill range of which starts near the Maharashtra-Gujarat border running to nearly 1600 km along the States of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and ending at Kanyakumari, will be prioritised into five categories based on richness of biodiversity and other ecological factors.

The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), which met last week, is understood to have drawn up some guidelines for the classification during its meeting. The panel has also framed a general outline for the formation of Western Ghats Ecology Authority (WEA), as suggested by the Ministry of Environment and Forests

The WEA will be headed by a senior hand well-versed in ecological matters. The authority will have representatives of all the Ghats States and technical experts as its members. The WEA will be empowered by invoking the provisions of the Environment Protection Act and have statutory powers. It will also have a decisive say in all matters related to the Ghats, according to sources.

The panel has proposed formation of State-level Standing Committees on Western Ghats in all the Ghats States. The clearance for any development project in the Ghats region will have to be obtained from the WEA. The proposals and applications should be routed to the WEA through the civic bodies in the respective area and State-level Standing Committees, sources said.

Conservation

The WGEEP, headed by eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil, was appointed by the Ministry to recommend steps to preserve, conserve and rejuvenate the ecologically-sensitive Ghats region. It was also asked to demarcate ecologically-sensitive zones in the region.

The panel is of the view that no environmentally hazardous industries and activities should be permitted in the ecologically sensitive zones. Development activities will be permitted in the moderately sensitive and lower categories.

Sustainable development

The permission in these categories would come with a rider that only green and sustainable development programmes and technologies should be employed in the area. Industrial units were not expected in the Ghats region and the focus would be on sustainable development patterns, panel sources said.

Mining and such environmentally hazardous activities will not be permitted in the first two categories. One cannot completely ban mining. Hence, such activities will be allowed only in the ecologically insignificant areas, the sources have said.

Report in June

The panel interacted with representatives of various NGOs working in the Ghats region last week. It will also hold discussions with the Union Minister of Environment and Forest later in the month.

The WGEEP will submit its report to the Ministry in June. Originally, it was to submit the report this month. However, it was given extension of time.

 

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