Positive alternatives to existing methods of developments should be sought while rebuilding flood-ravaged Kerala, ecologist Madhav Gadgil has said.
“Think of alternatives that are not environmentally disruptive but are scientific and participatory — people-specific — at the local level. The local community’s rights should be respected, which also means that you should stop imposing your suggestions on the people,” said Prof. Gadgil, chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Experts Committee.
He was speaking on contemporary environmental issues at an event organised by a collective Manava Sanskriti at YMCA Hall on Saturday.
“Kerala is building extensively and stone is needed. So, is it possible to say no to stone quarrying?” he asked, referring to an alternative resorted to by a group of Gond women in Maharashtra. Tired of mindless stone quarrying by contractors from outside the region using heavy machines, they decided to do it themselves. “They ran the quarry, with no hurry in extracting stones, under the Mining and Geology Department’s inspection. At a point they decided that further exploitation was impossible and used the money to buy a tractor, thereby converting a non-renewable resource to a renewable one as it provided them a sustainable income,” Prof. Gadgil said. There were no experts to advise them, but they decided to develop human and social capital, which can act as a lesson while rebuilding Kerala, he said. “Kerala has the capability and political character to create a new path to development with the participation of the community as it had done in the people’s planning programme,” he said.