COIMBATORE: ‘Save Western Ghats Movement’ (SWGM) has decided to celebrate February 1 as 'Save Western Ghats Day' every year for conserving the mountain chain for the survival present and next generation.
At the end of third National conference conducted at Sri Krishna Colleges of Engineering and Arts and Science campus in Coimbatore, the core committee members from six states along with eminent environment scientists and researchers released the declaration of the 9th National Conference of Save the Western Ghats Movement on Sunday.
The declaration concerns humanity’s anxieties about the fate of the Western Ghats mountain’s ecosystem. The federal and state governments should under the Environment Protection Act- 1986, halt the steady degradation of the mountain chain that has taken place over the past decades, before it became irreversible, they urged.
The declaration asserts that “the people of the Western Ghats all of whom depend upon this ancient mountain ecosystem for their water, livelihood and survival will use all means at our disposal to ensure that the authorities install a collective and holistic protective regime grounded in law for all the six states together.”
The Western Ghats is an important geological land form on the fringe of the west coast of India and it is the origin of Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery and a number of other rivers and extends over a distance of approximately 1500-km from Tapti river in the north to Kanyakumari in the south and traverses through six States namely, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The mountain chain has many unique habitats which are home to a variety of endemic species of flora and fauna.
The UNESCO has included certain identified parts of Western Ghats in the “UNESCO World Natural Heritage List” because Western Ghats is a cradle for biological evolution.
Regretting lack of a tourism policy, the convention came down on “every place becoming a target for tourism promoters.” Nearly 30,000 youth from various parts of India and from foreign countries including USA, UK and Kenya benefitted from this unique conference.
