Kerala   

Move to divert pristine grasslands for tourism

P. Venugopal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Moves are afoot in the State Government to hand over 440 hectares of pristine grasslands, which actually should enjoy the legal status of `reserved forests,' to the tourism industry at Vagamon, bordering Kottayam and Idukki districts.

The District Collector of Idukki had sent a proposal in this regard to the Government on July 15.

On the basis of the report, the Principal Secretary for Tourism convened a meeting of officials of the departments concerned on November 23 to conduct a joint survey of the land to determine the extent of land that could be given to the tourism industry. The survey, scheduled to start on November 27, is to be completed within a week.

Vagamon is the source of Meenachil River and is rich in fauna and flora typical of low altitude grasslands.

Over the past five years or so, there has been large-scale land encroachment in this area by people investing in the tourism industry.

The names of even certain known politicians were linked to land-grabbing in this area.

Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, during his tenure as Leader of the Opposition had led public campaigns against the indiscriminate land grabbing operations in this area.

Mr. Achuthanandan had then alleged the involvement of certain UDF politicians in the operations and warned that the destruction of the grassland ecosystem would lead to the drying up of the Meenachil.

An extent of 440 hectares of these grasslands was subjected to `compensatory afforestation' in the Eighties as a legal requirement for the diversion of forests elsewhere for various development projects in the State.

This automatically reposes the status of `reserve forests' to the stretch.

On November 10 this year, Forest Minister Benoy Viswom had, in a press release, informed the public that the Government had notified this stretch as a `reserve forest.'

To quote him, "The Forest Department had undertaken compensatory afforestation in this [newly notified] area in lieu of forest land diverted [for development projects]. This stretch was tied up in a court case for some time. The Government got it released from the case only recently. The Government had declared it as a `reserved forest' to ensure that it does not get alienated once again... This area, considered extremely rich in biodiversity, is also the source of Meenachil River."

The stand the Idukki District Collector had taken on the issue is that, although compensatory afforestation was undertaken in the area, it had only a few patches of forests covering about 40 hectares in all and could, therefore, be utilised for the tourism industry.

The grasslands, in fact, extend far beyond the stretch of 440 hectares shown on the records in the Eighties as utilised for compensatory afforestation.

According to the Collector's report, the Government owns 762.2876 hectares of grasslands here [which includes the above-mentioned 440 hectares].

His proposal is to have a `hill resort of international standards' utilising the entire land with the Government.

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