It's not always that a report uploaded on a government website catches people's imagination. In fact, more often than not, it is a dreary process to read through the reams of jargon to make sense.
But a recent report prepared by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel and put up on the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) website has got villagers and communities from the Western Ghats extremely excited since it is one of the first to uphold the community's right to decide . In what is seen as a far-reaching recommendation, the report says that local bodies and villagers should be consulted before any development or infrastructure project comes up in an ecologically sensitive region.
The government-appointed expert panel made many more recommendations which allegedly made the government jittery about publishing it. For instance , a strongly-worded critique on the pitiable state of the Western Ghats recommends that no special economic zones (SEZ) should be permitted , no new hill stations be allowed and public land should not be converted to private land in the ecosensitive parts of the Ghats. It also proposes that no genetically modified (GM) crops should be allowed and moots a complete phase out of plastic bags in shops and tourist spots on a priority basis. "We found that there is a severe lack of environmental governance . For instance, we found industries digging borewells near Ratnagiri in Maharashtra and discharging extremely toxic industrial waste in the streams with no one to stop them," says Madhav Gadgil, a noted ecologist and head of the 13-member Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel.
The recommendations in the report apparently caused such panic that MoEF moved a plea in the Delhi high court against publishing it. The report was not released by the ministry for nine months. Dissenting letters from state governments of Kerala and Maharashtra - who felt that the report may be 'anti-development' - added to the ministry's apprehensions . Later, an RTI application demanding the contents be made public led the court to quash the MoEF's plea. The court instead ordered MoEF to publish the report immediately. The ministry did so finally on May 23, but added a disclaimer: "The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel report has not been formally accepted by the ministry. It is still being analysed and considered."
Gadgil says that the recommendation which could have terrified the ministry is the one about 'people's participation' in decision making. "Till now, public hearings were hardly conducted and the villager's role in decision- making has been minimal in the Ghats. Industries and power projects have come up in their pristine land without their say. I cannot understand why the ministry tried to stall the report but I think our recommendation of creating an inclusive process is worrying them."
Gadgil also adds that despite repeated attempts, the environment minister has not been willing to meet him. "We submitted our report on September 19, 2011. Since then, we received no communication from the ministry except that the report's release was stalled. I requested for an appointment with the minister, Jayanthi Natarajan, but it was refused. Till today, my appointment with her has not been set up," he says.
Incidentally, the Kerala government has announced that they will not accept the report's recommendations . The state's chief minister, Oommen Chandy, brushed aside the points raised in the report by saying "The Gadgil report places several restrictions on human activities in the Western Ghats and is impractical to implement in the state. "
Nevertheless, activist groups from Kerala, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka are gung-ho . "The report is very important to us because it projects people's views," says Kishore Kumar, an RTI activist from Karnataka . "The ecology in our area near Sakleshpur has been graded as most ecologically sensitive by Gadgil, but various dam projects are in progress here. We will be sending our views on the report to the ministry soon."
But a recent report prepared by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel and put up on the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) website has got villagers and communities from the Western Ghats extremely excited since it is one of the first to uphold the community's right to decide . In what is seen as a far-reaching recommendation, the report says that local bodies and villagers should be consulted before any development or infrastructure project comes up in an ecologically sensitive region.
The government-appointed expert panel made many more recommendations which allegedly made the government jittery about publishing it. For instance , a strongly-worded critique on the pitiable state of the Western Ghats recommends that no special economic zones (SEZ) should be permitted , no new hill stations be allowed and public land should not be converted to private land in the ecosensitive parts of the Ghats. It also proposes that no genetically modified (GM) crops should be allowed and moots a complete phase out of plastic bags in shops and tourist spots on a priority basis. "We found that there is a severe lack of environmental governance . For instance, we found industries digging borewells near Ratnagiri in Maharashtra and discharging extremely toxic industrial waste in the streams with no one to stop them," says Madhav Gadgil, a noted ecologist and head of the 13-member Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel.
The recommendations in the report apparently caused such panic that MoEF moved a plea in the Delhi high court against publishing it. The report was not released by the ministry for nine months. Dissenting letters from state governments of Kerala and Maharashtra - who felt that the report may be 'anti-development' - added to the ministry's apprehensions . Later, an RTI application demanding the contents be made public led the court to quash the MoEF's plea. The court instead ordered MoEF to publish the report immediately. The ministry did so finally on May 23, but added a disclaimer: "The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel report has not been formally accepted by the ministry. It is still being analysed and considered."
Gadgil says that the recommendation which could have terrified the ministry is the one about 'people's participation' in decision making. "Till now, public hearings were hardly conducted and the villager's role in decision- making has been minimal in the Ghats. Industries and power projects have come up in their pristine land without their say. I cannot understand why the ministry tried to stall the report but I think our recommendation of creating an inclusive process is worrying them."
Gadgil also adds that despite repeated attempts, the environment minister has not been willing to meet him. "We submitted our report on September 19, 2011. Since then, we received no communication from the ministry except that the report's release was stalled. I requested for an appointment with the minister, Jayanthi Natarajan, but it was refused. Till today, my appointment with her has not been set up," he says.
Incidentally, the Kerala government has announced that they will not accept the report's recommendations . The state's chief minister, Oommen Chandy, brushed aside the points raised in the report by saying "The Gadgil report places several restrictions on human activities in the Western Ghats and is impractical to implement in the state. "
Nevertheless, activist groups from Kerala, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka are gung-ho . "The report is very important to us because it projects people's views," says Kishore Kumar, an RTI activist from Karnataka . "The ecology in our area near Sakleshpur has been graded as most ecologically sensitive by Gadgil, but various dam projects are in progress here. We will be sending our views on the report to the ministry soon."
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