Western Ghats caught in NGT-Centre war

A plea by NGOs from Kerala, Goa and Karnataka to preserve the ecological integrity of the Western Ghats has seen the National Green Tribunal (NGT) hit out at the environment ministry for its unprofessional approach in dealing with such a crucial issue. The NGOs warn that the dilution of the Gadgil Committee report titled the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) will result in the industrialisation of one of the world’s finest biodiversity hot spots. Wary of criticism by state governments, opposing WGEEP’s determination to maintain the biodiversity at all costs, saw the green ministry set up a second committee headed by Planning Commission member K. Kasturirangan which has green signalled industrial development, albeit in a sustainable manner. With the green ministry not coming out in the open about what its final position on these conflicting reports, it was left to the NGT chairperson, Justice Swatanter Kumar, to question why their failure to make up their minds. Sources in the ministry claim the biggest road block has been the fact that the states of Kerala, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have failed to submit their views on both these reports. The only two states to have done so are Maharashtra and Goa. The ministry has asked for a four-week extension but the NGT chairman warned, “You did not take any step to get the comments earlier. You should have come to us if they (states) were not responding.” Several corporate houses are keen to start power projects in these economically fragile Western Ghats and the Kerala state government is also lobbying to allow economic and building activities in this zone. Some NGOs have warned that green signalling such haphazard development will result in the repetition of an Uttarakhand tragedy. Prof. Gadgil has written an open letter to Mr Kasturirangan, stating. “You advocate a partitioning amongst roughly one-third of what you deem natural landscape to be safeguarded by guns and guards and two-thirds of this area be thrown open to development as what spawned the `35,000-crore illegal mining scam of Goa.” This open letter has been quoted by NGOs.