Inaugurating a workshop on 'State Action Plan for Climate Change' here, Chandy said government was of the view that development and environment conservation should be tied up and solution should be found for problems related to environment issues.

Government did not believe in development by destroying the environment, Chandy said, and termed as "baseless" the charge that government plans to implement projects harmful to nature under the cover of Emerging Kerala meet.

Chandy said the meet was an ambitious event viewed with great expectation. More than 2500 delegates from various organisations and from 52 countries have confirmed their participation at the three-day meet to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on September 12.

In a warning to encroachers of forest land, the Chief Minister said the "state cannot take a lenient view on forest encroachments" even if it was done by persons with the support of any political party.

The state has a record forest cover of 28.9 per cent of its total area while the national average of forest cover was 21.5 per cent, he said.

On the State Action Plan on Climate change, Chandy said the draft of the plan would be put on public domain for discussion and to invite suggestions from all sections of the society including environmentalists.

Different departments have mooted proposals to the tune of Rs 2500 crore now. However, the amount might go up once the final plan was ready, he said.