Senior ecologist Madhav Gadgil who led a panel to map the eco-sensitivity of the western ghats has charged the state and central governments of attempting to bury his findings. Gadgil who was at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in the city for a talk on eco-conservation pointed out how the Central Information Commissioner (CIC) had himself pulled up the government for suppressing the report. Gadgil recalled that the CIC had said, “Unless the government does not logically explain its decision to suppress the report, it will be seen as being done for arbitrary and corrupt reasons.”
The chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel said he was not surprised with the government’s attempts to put the report findings into cold storage. “The MoEF launched the Zonal Atlas for Siting of Industries with great fan fare. After investing substantial human resources and spending a large amount of funds, when they realised that the findings would hurt vested interests, the Secretary (Environment) suppressed it.”
“How much and for how long should adivasi villages be expected to sacrifice for urban India’s unending greed?” he asked. According to him, the Right To Information used to gather data for Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra revealed shocking findings.
Ghadgil also came down heavily on the government for allowing a windmill project in the highly eco-gragile Bhimashankar-Mahabaleshwar zone which is home to rare species like the giant squirrel and the lion tailed macaque. “Though these private companies have got permission for windmills only on a strip of land on the hill top, they have taken over entire hills and built approach roads.” He also pointed out how despite all parties unanimously passing a bill in the Kerala assembly asking for Rs 216 crore compensation from Coca-Cola for the local Plachimada gram panchayat for degradation of water resources over a year ago, Rashtrapati Bhavan has been sitting on it.
