Govt agencies destroy state's environment: V K Madhusoodanan

KOLLAM: Noted environmentalist V.K. Madhusoodanan has held the government’s  agencies responsible for  damaging the state’s fragile environment. “The government’s expert committees and departments take a destructive approach towards conservation. The construction of concrete sidewalls for water bodies, including lakes, is a blatant violation of the Costal Regulation Zone norms. Such construction prevents natural regeneration of mangroves and destructs the ecosystem in nature,” he said. The environmentalist from Kollam,  who has bagged the environment protection award 2016 instituted by Kerala State Biodiversity Board, has been  involved in the conservation of  nature for the past five decades. He has also spotted and preserved  a number of endangered plant species.

The government in the recent budget had  announced to plant three crore trees, but 30 crore plants are destroyed in the name of development. According to Mr. Madhusoodanan, these trees are  grown  by nature itself and can’t be replanted. “This destroys the endemic species of trees in our ecosystem and the greenery cannot be brought back with human efforts,” he said.   Destroying these trees will affect the natural purification of water. The concentration of bio and heavy metal waste in the soil is increasing due to this. The CRZ has also proposed that the inter-tidal zone should never be disturbed for the protection of mangrove vegetation.

The LSGDs spend a good share of plan fund in constructing concrete drainages, affecting natural water channels and  recharging of marshy lands.  The pollutants in watershed areas are carried to another water body through these drainages, he said. The  LSGDs are also destroying environment by constructing roads by filling rivers, lakes and marshy lands in the name of tourism and infrastructure development, he added. For the effective implementation of environmental conservation projects,  the human resource should be diverted to more productive process, including ground water recharging, protection of coconut trees and small industries, he said.

Mr Madhusoodanan hoped that the government would undertake productive programmes for environmental conservation under the Harita Keralam Mission. Among his major achievements is the  discovery of a mangrove plant species, Ceriops Tagal from Neendakara, that was endangered after 1850. He currently grows these saplings in Ashramam and Ayiramthengu in Kollam. He has also spotted the endangered Syzygium Travancoricum at Charava and Pathanamthitta. Excoecaria Indica, which has been listed as data deficient by the IUCN,  is also grown by him.   He has published several books on environmental conservation and is active in conserving Sasthamkotta and Ashtamudi lake and the mangroves along coastal Kollam. Madhusoodanan, who  hails from Devi Vihar in Thattasseri, Chavara, retired as junior superintendent in the fisheries department in 2008. He is the state environment committee member of Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad.