‘Involve local communities to rebuild’

KOCHI: The state government should look at sustainable solutions by involving local communities while rebuilding Kerala, said Western Ghats ecology expert panel (WGEEP) chairman and ecologist Madhav Gadgil.

“My only suggestion is that do not make it another bureaucratic exercise. To my mind there is abundant evidence that the so-called scientific expertise which bureaucracy exercises is actually fraudulent,” said Gadgil while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a talk on ‘Sustainable rebuilding of Kerala’ organized by the Indian association of lawyers in Kochi on Friday.

“Centralized decision making is not appropriate. I strongly suggest that it should not be bureaucracy-managed scientific expertize. Bureaucrats should provide inputs and this should be transparent and put forth for the public to understand. We should have a grassroots-level approach to arrive at a final decision,” he said, adding that though it might take time it was the only way for a sustainable solution.

On whether the simultaneous opening of dams created the flood situation, Gadgil said that from what people from various sections of the state have been saying, prima facie, it seemed so. “There’s a scientific regime of arranging water flows. According to experts in water resources, the policy should be that dam should become full only at the end of the monsoon not midway through. Here the dams were filling and there were heavy rains and dams were suddenly opened. This entire thing should be examined in detail,” he said.

Not ruling out the possibility of climate change, he said that extreme high level of rainfall and low level of rainfall are likely to increase, according to climate experts.

“There is a growing criticism that the governments are not listening to the meteorological departments and scientific advice is being ignored at all levels. Also, government agencies are at great fault for only talking to governments. This is something they should correct. And the scientific jargon should make way for simple language with probability of rainfall which engineers can look at and take the right decisions,” he added.

“The WGEEP has always suggested that local communities should be involved. Our report can only be a starting point for such discussions. It must be taken further by holding discussions with the people and civic organizations,” Gadgil said.

“Now, development and environment programmes are being imposed. A whole range of mines, quarries reservoirs, industries which cause pollution, etc. are being centrally decided and imposed on the people against very strong protests by local communities. This is highly improper,” he said.

Refuting allegations that WGEEP had recommended Western Ghats to be made into a UNESCO heritage site in its report, he said that this was a completely wrong interpretation.