KOCHI: A scientific study by environmentalists have found that the destruction of wetlands for laying the 530 km long Semi High Speed Silver Line Rail would result in Kerala losing crores.
This was stated by Dr G S Vijayan, leading environmental scientist and former chairman of Kerala State Biodiversity Board on Monday while addressing an awareness programme at Kochi. “The destruction of a hectare of wetland would lead to the loss of major loss in tune of crores. It is the wetland in the State that sustains the ecology, greenery and fertility of the land. Once it is gone, everything is gone,” said Dr Vijayan. He said that though Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was given a detailed report about the study, the latter has not bothered to even acknowledge its receipt. Prof Madhav Gadgil, who was in Kochi to deliver the M K Prasad Endowment Lecture on Monday said that the acquiring of land and construction of the semi high speed rail line through the fragile landscape of Kerala would lead to irreversible environmental and ecological disaster.
John Peruvanthanam, noted environmentalist, said that the Detailed Project Report of the Silver Line Rail is totally silent about what the Government proposes to do the restoration of environment and ecology which would get destroyed once the land acquiring process was over.
“What has been left unsaid is the destruction of mangroves spread along the 72 km route in Kasaragod and Kannur districts of the State. It is these mangroves that saved Kerala coast fom the tsunami attack of December 2004 and the subsequent high tidal waves that attacked the coastline.
Once these mangroves are destroyed , the State and the population along the shore would turn into sitting ducks for natural disasters,” said John who undertook a study along the 72 km stretch recently.
Dr S Mohammaed Raffi, former principal scientist at Centre for Advanced Studies in Marine Biology (CASMB), Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, said that mangroves were left untouched everywhere in the world because they are nature’s high rise wall to counter tsunami and natural disasters. “We in CASMB had held many international workshops on the preservation of mangroves which was attended by scientists from Asian and African countries,” Dr Raffi told The Pioneer
Environmentalists in Kasaragod and Kannur districts have come together under the banner of Saparya to protest against the move by the Silver Line Rail Project to clear the coastline of mangroves, said Sukumaran Periyachur, former principal of Government Higher Secondary School, Kannur and an author of repute.
Meanwhile, people who are protesting the land acquiring process of the State administration changed the pattern of their demonstrations with effect from Monday. They wait till the revenue officials lay he survey stones and leave the area. Once the officials move out after laying down the survey stones, the demonstrators take over the scene, pull out the stones and throw them in ponds making it difficult for the ‘babus’ to recover them. The entire area where the stones have been laid are restored to its original self, making the agitation a hide and seek game.
The 530 km Silver Line Rail linking Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod at an estimated cost of Rs 64,0000 crore would bring the commuting time to less than four hours from the present 11 hours, claim the Kerala Government.
(Agencies)
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