26/08/2019 - Environment

KEY POINTS

Impending crisis in Western ghats

·        Recent floods in Kerala in 2018, 2019 wreaked a havoc in Kerala.

·        Villagers of Kavalappara, which is located at Pothukal panchayat near Nilambur town, are still struggling to cope with the nightmarish events when a portion of a huge hill of the Western Ghats collapsed on their village.

·        India State of Forest Report (ISFR)  a biennial publication of the Forest Survey of India (FSI), for 2005, 2015 and 2017, shows a significant decline in the forest cover in the last 12 years.

·        The new report - IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2, says ongoing pressure for development would continue to place the Western Ghats under high threat.

Grass roots governance

·        Considering the impending crisis, it is the need of the hour to take full advantage of powers and responsibilities conferred on citizens under provisions such as the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution, and the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.

·        The Public hearing must be properly organised to take collective decision at the local level.

·        The People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR) has been prepared for all the local bodies in Wayanad, making it the first district in Kerala to have completed the process.

·        The PBRs have been submitted to the Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB), the custodian of the document. This needs to be replicated at the national level.

·        Conservation prescriptions should not be merely regulatory, but include positive incentives such as conservation service charges.

·        Economic activities like quarrying to agencies like the Kudumbashree groups that are accountable to local communities.

·        The sovereign people, are the real rulers of India and must engage ourselves more actively in the governance of the country and lead it on to a path of people-friendly and nature-friendly development.

please review

Please review my answer. 

Thank you.

Q. Grass-roots governance is the need of the hour for conserving the biodiversity of the Western ghats region. Justify (200 Words)

Western Ghats were added as UNESCO world Heritage site in 2002 with the consensus that ‘ In western ghats, attention is needed to address Biodiversity crisis which is being caused by population pressure and climate change’.

Substantial financial losses and manifold human tragedies observed in intense floods & Landslides in recent years (eg: Flood in chennai in 2015, 2018 floods in Kerala). It indicate that current govt. initiatives are in dire need of review; and also demands for serious attention towards this biodiversity hotspot. As per eminent ecologists these destruction could have been minimized with prior actions. 

Problems:

1. Excess quarrying or mining in critical areas of ecological region by various mafias. 

2. Encroachment on dried river beds due to increasing population. 

3. Development projects (Hydro-Electric projects, thermal power plants, infrastructure development, etc) in the ecological sensitive zone. 

4. Replacement of natural vegetation by new plantations by farmers. 

5. Forming new planes for agriculture and human establishments. 

6. Depletion of groundwater reserves. 

Way Ahead:

1. A new model is desired where conservation and development are compatible with each other. 

2. Demarcation of areas as ecological sensitive zones and phase wise implementations in accordance with Environment Protection Act, 1986. 

3. Positive incentives for initiatives taken by locals for conservation of biodiversity and SHGs like ‘Kudumbashree’ shall be made responsible for economic activities like quarrying as they are direct answerable to locals. 

4. Public Biodiversity register should serve as a tool for environmental impact assessment than mere record. Also public information consent shall be mandate before giving access to bio-reserve for development activity.

5. Gadgil Committee recommended devolution of power to gram sabhas or ward communities for self governance which is already in frame work of constitutional rights and laws. 73rd and 74th amendment to constitution aims towards strengthening the local governance and empowering them to have authority to take decisions on development in their own locality. (Eg: Plachimada panchayat in kerala was successful in abrogating licence of coca cola)

Please review!