Parks and tourism centres should not be allowed in mangrove areas, the Kannur Jilla Paristhithi Samithi has said.
A press release quoting environmentalists at a recent gathering at Madayippara here said protecting the wetland ecosystem was important. The samithi would spearhead agitations if parks or tourism facilities were allowed to come up in ecologically fragile areas. While wetlands and mangrove forests were facing serious threats, the government was opening up such places for encroachers and the land mafia without enforcing the Coastal Regulation Zone rules, the Ramsar Convention proposals, the Kerala Conservation of Paddy and Wetland Act, 2008, and the Environmental Protection Act, 1986, the release said.
The samithi said mangroves in the district had shrunk to 400 hectares from the 755 ha in 1991. The samithi would not allow any destruction of mangroves or wetland areas. The paddy-and-shrimp farming scheme at Ezhome here should be done outside the mangrove areas, the samithi said.
The release said 80 hectares of wetland at Pazhayangadi, Ezhome, Pappinissery, Dal, Kuyyali, Nadal, Uliyathkadavu, Perumba, Kunhimangalam, Kattampally, and Irinav had been destroyed. As a result, nearly 15 and 8 species of water birds and mammals respectively were in the endangered category. Former Chief Conservator of Forests O. Jayarajan, who inaugurated the convention sought a mangrove protection authority. Hari Chakkarakkal, Vinod Payyada, T.P. Padmanabhan, and Bhaskaran Vellur were among those who spoke.
Source:The Hindu,23 July 2013