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Protecting the Western Ghats
- The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel reporting to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has made several salutary recommendations for the long-term conservation of this global biodiversity hotspot.
- The experts studied scientific reports and Supreme Court judgments, consulted the State governments involved, and listened to village panchayats.
- A central message that emerges is that the entire ghat region meets the criteria for declaration as an ecologically sensitive area.
- protection is essential to rule out incompatible activities such as mining, constructing large dams, and setting up polluting industries.
- If there is one single reason to protect the whole of the Western Ghats, it is the phenomenon of endemism.
- According to reliable estimates, they have more than 1,500 endemic species of flowering plants, and at least 500 such species of fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals
- The MoEF would therefore do well to heed the advice of the expert group and unhesitatingly reject environmental clearance for two controversial dam projects —
- Athirapilly in Kerala and
- Gundia in Karnataka.
The locations of both come under the most sensitive ecological zone category. - A second issue relates to mining in Goa.
- Here the panel has rightly called for an indefinite moratorium on clearances for new mines in sensitive zones and phasing out of the activity in fragile areas by 2016.
