Sunday, Jun 01, 2014
Thiruvananthapuram: The Madhav Gadgil Committee’s report, which recommends measures to protect the Western Ghats, is causing more problems in Kerala with churches adopting opposing stands about its implementation.
During the recent Lok Sabha poll, the ecology report sharply divided voters in the Idukki constituency and led to the defeat of its Congress candidate, Dean Kuriakose.
In the latest development, the Central Kerala Diocese of the Church of South India (CSI) issued a pastoral letter that was read on Sunday in its churches, supporting the recommendations.
The pastoral letter issued by CSI Bishop Thomas K. Oommen offered open support to the implementation of the Gadgil committee recommendations, arguing that the move to preserve the Western Ghats would be in the interests of the farmers in the region. This is directly opposite to the stand taken by the Syro Malabar Church, particularly in its Idukki and Thamarassery dioceses.
The CSI church feels that those who oppose the Gadgil committee recommendations are those with “vested interests”, and that the recommendations are in no way harmful to farmers, according to the letter.
In contrast, the Syro Malabar church is of the view that the report would virtually deprive tens of thousands of people in the region of their livelihoods.
The CSI church’s letter, titled ‘Let us raise our voice for the sustenance of life’, also alleges the presence of some 2,000 illegal mining units in the Western Ghats.
The Gadgil Committee submitted its report in August 2011. When criticism arose that the recommendations of the report were impractical, the previous United Progressive Alliance government set up the Kasturirangan Committee to study the same region. The Kasturirangan report was also stridently opposed by people living in the region.
The new federal environment and forest minister Prakash Javadekar will take a call on the Gadgil and Kasturirangan reports on June 4. Newly-elected Idukki MP, Joyce George, has said that a decision to implement any of the two reports’ recommendations was “equal to declaring war on the people”. He said no democratically elected government could impose any decision without taking the people into confidence.
If the Gadgil committee recommendations are implemented, it will comprise 40 taluks in the state and affect two thirds of Kerala’s population of 33 million.
By Akhel Mathew ?Correspondent
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