Tamil Nadu - Udhagamandalam   

The serene hills have now become a source of fear

Udhagamandalam: With the awe-inspiring, beautiful hills of the Nilgiris having exposed their dark side and taken many lives, the clamour for action to protect them has become strident.

Lamenting that the serene hills have over the past few days become a source of fear, people representing a cross section of the society, particularly green activists, opined to The Hindu here that only through swift damage control measures can a change be brought in the current mental makeup of the society.

Meanwhile the probable causes for the catastrophe have started doing the rounds. Honorary Director of the Nilgiri Documentation Centre (NDC) Dharmalingam Venugopal handed over a copy of a compilation, “Planning for development with conservation in hill areas with special reference to the Nilgiris”, sponsored by the Union Planning Commission (UPC) and prepared by the Save Nilgiris Campaign in 2005, to the Nilgiris Collector Anandrao V.Patil on Wednesday. Mr. Venugopal said that steps to reverse the trend vis-À-vis ecologically harmful practices cannot brook further delay.

Mr.Patil promised that as soon as the focus shifts from relief and restoration, high priority would be accorded to identifying the factors which contributed to the recent natural calamity which claimed many lives and caused extensive damage.Appropriate remedial measures would be taken.

Mr.Venugopal has also urged the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh to find out whether the recent unprecedented developments in the Nilgiris were in tune with the warning of climatologists that mountains will be the first to feel the impact of climate change.

He hoped that the Nilgiris will figure in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Mr.Ahluwalia has asked him to apprise member of the Planning Commission Kasturirangan.

The President, All India Women’s Conference, the Nilgiris Chapter Indu K.Mallah said that steps should be taken to declare the Nilgiris as a protected area and the Master Plan introduced in the early 1990s revived.

Indiscriminate building activities should be stopped and henceforth all building proposals should be thoroughly vetted by an expert team of engineers and architects to ensure that they do not de-stabilise the surrounding region. Illegal quarrying and tree-felling should be stopped with immediate effect. Indigenous farming practices should be encouraged. Encroachments on hill sides and other sensitive areas should be dealt with firmly. Mass afforestation programmes should be undertaken in a planned manner and the services of committed NGOs and individuals should be used to strengthen the hands of the administration.

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