Green panel slams 'faulty' govt policies

The Western Ghats ecology expert panel (WGEEP) has slammed the state government for its “seriously defective” environment clearance policy.

In its report, the WGEEP has targeted the state government for outrightly rejecting public opinions against the mining project in Sindhudurg’s Kalne.

“Despite unanimous rejection of the mining proposal, the Maharashtra government went ahead and accorded environmental clearance to the mine on March 17, 2009. In the absence of any transparent, participatory monitoring process, the conditions imposed while according environmental clearance are routinely violated,” stated the report.

“The EIAs (environment impact assessment) are particularly weak in the sections on biodiversity and socio-economic issues. For instance, they commonly dismiss as barren land, sadas or the wind swept lateritic plateaus of the Western Ghats with stunted tree growth. These plateaus are very rich in biodiversity,” the report said.

“The EIA process leaves many pertinent issues out of consideration. For example, transmission lines emanating from power projects have significant impacts on mango and cashew orchards as well as forests on Western Ghats. But such impacts are ignored. Similarly, transport of ore by trucks on roads and by barges on rivers and ships on sea all have significant environmental and social impacts that have never been considered,” slammed the report.

Highlighting the state government’s apathy towards increasing the local participation, the committee has cited the example of India’s Biological Diversity Act, 2002, which provides for establishment of biological diversity management committees involving local community members at gram, taluka and zilla panchayat levels as well as at municipal levels.

“Unfortunately, no step has been taken to implement the Biological Diversity Act in the state, and the implementation has been unsatisfactory and restricted to the state-level committee in Goa,” said the report.

The WGEEP, though appointed by the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), was denied data from ZASI (zoning atlases for siting of industries), which was founded by the MoEF itself.

The ZASI holds the important data of existing pollution levels and environmentally and socially sensitive areas, delineating zones where it would be undesirable to add further pollution loads.

The report has asked the MoEF to put up all the available data from ZASI in public domain.