Ecologist Madhav Gadgil, who headed the Western Ghats Ecological Expert Panel (WGEEP) constituted in 2011 had warned that several areas coming under the Western Ghats should be classified as ecologically sensitive. The Kerala Government had, however opposed the panel’s recommendation. The result is there for all to see. Nature’s fury knows no bounds. And nature has claimed some hapless victims even as the state undergoes an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Gadgil who founded the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru in his report on the Western Ghats in Kerala had recommended strict restrictions on mining and quarrying and on use of land for non-forest purposes.
Gadgil terms the recent floods in Kerala a “man-made calamity.”He blames a defective and irresponsible environmental policy for it. The rapidly changing landscape of Kerala, marked by several high rises, not seen before, should have forewarned any climatologist about the impending disaster. But governments everywhere are known to succumb to the mining lobby that funds elections and pays for other private expenses of politicians too.
Coming to Meghalaya, the situation here too is grave what with mountain slopes and pristine community forests giving way to buildings even while aquifers and catchments are destroyed through reckless quarrying. Many rivers have run dry on account of relentless sang banking activities. As far as coal mining is concerned, the National Green Tribunal has for the time being put a stop to this extractive and destructive practice but for how long? The longest cave systems in Asia located in the Jaintia Hills have all been acquired by private individuals who don’t see caves as repositories of geological, historical and ecological wisdom. They see these limestone caves only as resources to be exploited. It is instructive that mining of coal and limestone and the setting up of cement companies on forest land is treated as normal. It took the Supreme Court to step in and take cognizance of this willful default and connivance between cement companies and State Forest Department officials and to bring in the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) through the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Government of India, to make the Companies compensate for the forest land they have encroached on. But the destruction of the neighbouring forest areas outside the reserved forests continue unabated. It is only a matter of time before nature fights back. But the consequences then would be more than the state can handle. Does anyone care?