Urging the Union and State governments to implement the Gadgil committee report on Western Ghats conservation, over 250 environmental activists from Malabar, staged a satyagraha in the city on Saturday.
The protest passed a resolution to bring the entire Western Ghats under the category of Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA).
Opening the stir, V.S. Vijayan, ecologist and former chairman of Kerala State Biodiversity Board, said a massive people’s protest was needed to implement the Gadgil committee report and conserve the Western Ghats. He said the provisions of the report would not harm the State’s farmers.
Historian M.G.S. Narayanan visited the activists and expressed his solidarity to the cause.
He said Western Ghats’ biodiversity was more precious than any investment in the region. Environmentalist C.R. Neelakandan said that environmentalists in the State were under attack now. Coordinators of the meet said district-wise protests would be taken up in Malabar to make people realise the value of Western Ghats. The second protest in the series would be held in Kannur on August 2.
T. Shobheendran, chairman of the Paristhithi Samrakshana Ekopana Samiti, presided. Representatives from all six districts in north Kerala were present.
