Kerala - Pathanamthitta   

Ecocentre to be launched

Staff Reporter

To study ecosystem of Pampa

PATHANAMTHITTA: The Pampa Parirakshana Samiti, a Kozhencherry-based environmental organisation which has been campaigning for the cause of the river Pampa for the past 13 years, will open an Environmental Resource Centre (ERC) at Poovathoor, near Aranmula, on the banks of the Pampa.

The centre was part of the Endogenous Tourism Project (ETP), jointly sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of India, said PPS general secretary N.K. Sukumaran Nair in a statement here on Monday.

Member of the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination R.V. Pillai, IAS, will inaugurate the centre at a function on Saturday. K.C. Rajagopalan, MLA, will preside. District Collector Ashok Kumar Singh will deliver the keynote address.

The PPS has been reviving non-governmental organisations and eco clubs attached to various educational institutions in the Pampa river basin as part of the environmental education programme launched by the Kerala Water Authority in connection with the proposed Pampa Action Plan, said Mr. Nair.

The Samiti was associated with the UNDP-sponsored ETP in Aranmula. The ERC would develop a comprehensive database on the riverine ecosystem and heritage of the Pampa. The centre would also document the cultural diversity in the Pampa river basin, indigenous knowledge, traditional conservation methods, art forms, and the so on.

The ERC would also undertake a bio-diversity study in the watershed areas of the river and its tributaries, besides providing expertise to the local bodies on various rural development and water conservation projects.

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