Environment Ministry panel to look into Pune landslide

Business Line , Friday, August 08, 2014
Correspondent : Aesha Datta
Developmental activities in the green belt to come under scanner

New Delhi, August 7:

The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change is setting up a three-member committee to look into the issues surrounding the recent landslide near Pune, Maharashtra.

According to sources, the move allegedly comes after an MP sent a complaint to the District Collector Sourabh Rao regarding construction and development activities being pursued in the region.

Ecologically sensitive

Ambegaon district near Pune had in fact, been marked out as an ecologically sensitive area in the Kasturirangan Committee report, which had subsequently been accepted by the Ministry of Environment in November last year.

However, according to activists, developmental activities including quarrying did not stop in the area, consequently resulting in the landslide late last month that claimed at least 136 lives.

The Kasturirangan Committee report had said that about 37 per cent of the Western Ghats as having high biological richness. It recommended that a non-tolerance policy be approached with respect to environmentally damaging activities such as mining and quarrying. However, these activities have allegedly continued in the area, which includes Malin, resulting in formation of lose rocks and soil

“Ground-truthing”

Further, Ministry is also undertaking a “ground-truthing” activity in the Western Ghats.

According to sources in the Ministry, several States had made representations saying that the ground realities of forest cover are different from the ones being thrown up by satellites.

Minister Prakash Javadekar had announced plans to conduct a “ground-truthing” exercise in the region to study the on-ground condition of forests, as against the status shown by satellites, across six States – Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. This exercise is likely to be completed by October.

 
SOURCE : http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/states/environment-ministry-panel-to-look-into-pune-landslide/article6292183.ece
 


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