In this backdrop, the Jhatkaa campaign has appealed citizens to send at least 2,000 responses to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change by November 3 when the notification expires.
After the success of a digital campaign for net neutrality where lakhs of mails flooded the inbox of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), a group of campaigners from non-profit organization Jhatkaa.org have begun a similar campaign called 'Save the Western Ghats'. In September, the environment ministry issued a fresh draft notification to declare eco-sensitive zones (ESZ) in the Western Ghats as the earlier one expired. The ministry has now invited public suggestions and objections the draft notification which has demarcated 59,940 square kilometres as ESZ and has called for banning of thermal power and mining in the ecologically fragile areas.
In this backdrop, the Jhatkaa campaign has appealed citizens to send at least 2,000 responses to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change by November 3 when the notification expires. The campaign's web page - savethewesternghats.com - provides an explainer to citizens on the ecological importance of the biodiversity hot spot, the need for a concerted response to the draft notification and also gives an account of how states adopted shoddy methods to carry out on ground verification of ESZ's.
The response prepared by campaigners to be sent to environment minister Prakash Javadekar highlights, among other things, that once the ESZ's are finalized the gram sabhas must retain the power of deciding how resources should be protected and conserved. It also adds that allowing hydropower projects will adversely affect the river ecology. The Kasturiranga report had omitted inclusion of parts the Dandeli-Anshi sanctuary and Dodamarg wildlife corridor in the ESZ's and the campaign asks the ministry to correct this omission.
"After the submission of K.Ksaturirangan committee's report, the Centre asked the six Western Ghats states to demarcate ESZ's by following a ground truthing exercise. The Centre is also keen on banning thermal power and other red category industries. But the state governments carried out the verification process in a non-transparent manner. Besides, why is the ministry silent on phasing out existing red category industries and river ecology?", said Tania Deviah, a campaigner from Jhatkaa.org.
Till September 4, when the ministry issued the fresh notification, only Goa and Kerala had submitted their respective ground truthing reports while Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu were late in submitting their reports.
Jhatkaa.org had hit the headlines this August when they ran a successful campaign on the alleged mercury contamination of Kodaikanal lake by Hindustan Unilever's thermometer factory. The campaign's rap video, 'Kodaikanal Won't' had quickly become viral with 30 lakh hits on YouTube. Before going online with the project, campaigners reached out to stakeholders and activists across the key Western Ghats states of Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra to incorporate their inputs in the response to be sent to the ministry.
"The Ghats sustain millions of people with food and water and thus should be central to any decision on use of the resources it provides. But after speaking to grass roots activists, it was found that little information was provided on meetings in ESZ villages. Thus, we felt it is necessary to send thousands of response to the ministry," added Deviah.
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 "Online campaign asks citizens to write to MoEF on Western Ghats")
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