The ‘integrated management plan’ mooted by the Environment Department aims at sustainable development of Sasthamcotta, Vellayani and Ashtamudi lakes with the financial support of the Union Government.

“Wetlands International has agreed to prepare the DPR for two lakes and we plan to submit it within six months,” department director P Sreekantan Nair said.

Wetlands International is a global agency recognised by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to prepare sustainable development plans.

The department hopes that the integrated management plan, a first-of-its-kind in the state, would help to make a joint effort by various agencies to meet the conservation requirements. “Piecemeal programmes for conservation conducted by various departments were often found to fail in achieving the desired results,” Sreekantan Nair said.

“Improving the water quality, fish wealth, livelihood of fishermen, preventing encroachments and various kinds of pollution could be done simultaneously if there is an integrated plan,” he said. The integrated management plan follows a successful attempt by the department to conserve and develop the fish resources of Vellayani lake. The project, implemented with the support of the Agency for Development of Aquaculture, saw a remarkable increase in the fish population.

“Improving the livelihood of fishermen was a major goal of the project. It worked and the fishermen later started a society which has around 100 members,” Sreekantan Nair said.

The State Government had sanctioned Rs 50 lakh to the Environment Department in last January for the preliminary works of the integrated management plan. The department is working on a war footing to get Central assistance this financial year.