THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A fact-finding mission appointed by United National Development Programme (UNDP) has called for a “substantive revision” of the controversial the High Range Mountain Landscape Project after it concluded that social and environmental standards were not complied with while implementing the project in the Western Ghats regions, mostly in Idukki district. The fact-finding mission was despatched following a complaint registered by Idukki MP Joice George.
Under the project, 11,650 hectares along the eastern high ranges of the state — mostly made up of plantations, habitations and tourism architecture — will be subject to stricter land use regulations. The probe, carried out by investigators in the Social and Environmental Compliance Unit of UNDP, found that there was a lack of specifics in the project document. There was no clear description about the communities and individuals the project will impact.
The document does acknowledge that indigenous and other vulnerable communities could be impacted but fails to describe how many tribal communities or individuals would be impacted, where these impacts could occur, and how access might be restricted. It also does not lay out the specific locations either, though it speaks of establishing a protected area system of 11,600 hectares. The project also wants to modify resource use in another 84,000 hectares of high-value biodiversity areas, but again is unclear about the exact boundaries of the area.
The biggest fear of high-range communities, that their activities will be severely curtailed, also proved true. The probe team found that the project document “provides a convoluted picture” of how potentially-impacted individuals and communities would participate in the protection measures. As feared, the project could have gone ahead even without taking stakeholders into confidence. Yet another charge made by Mr George, that no consultations were carried out, has also been confirmed. “Not all relevant stakeholders were invited to the primary consultation meeting, and, the meetings were inadequate in representation, number, and information provided,” the report stated.
