Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/church-voice-in-farm-vs-green-debate-ananthakrishnan-g-23367.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Church voice in farm vs green debate-Ananthakrishnan G | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Church voice in farm vs green debate-Ananthakrishnan G
-The Telegraph


Thiruvananthapuram: The Centre's move to implement an ecology panel's report on conservation of the Western Ghats has provoked a call for a 48-hour civil disobedience agitation by the Catholic Church in Kerala, starting Sunday midnight.

The Church claims the K. Kasturirangan report, notified on Wednesday, will hit the livelihoods of farmers living in the "high ranges" - foothill areas bordering the forests - and force them to relocate.

Green activists deny this, saying the measures will only restrict quarrying, sand-mining and construction inside the forests.

Most of the high-range residents are Catholics who migrated from other parts of Kerala. Under the Church's call, they will cook and sleep on their village streets the next two days; shut down business and education; refuse to pay taxes and water and electricity bills; not repay bank loans; and lay indefinite siege to the state's biggest power-generating station at Moolamattom.

This was disclosed by Fr Sebastian Kochupurakkal, general convener of agitation spearhead Highrange Development Council, formed under the diocese of Idukki district in central Kerala where the Church has a large following.

A pastoral letter read in Idukki's churches last Sunday - after a National Green Tribunal prodded the Centre to implement the report - had warned elected representatives they would be "confronted on the streets" if they ignored the people's sentiments.

At Thamarassery in Kozhikode district further north, the protests took a violent turn earlier this week. Forest officials were held hostage as violent mobs set fire to the forest office, government buses and police vehicles and attacked government buildings and journalists, prompting warning shots by the police.

In neighbouring Kottiyur, 15 government vehicles were torched and over 30 cops injured by agitators' stones. Thamarassery police have registered cases against over 1,000 "identifiable" people and arrested over a dozen men for destruction of public property. The police's losses alone are estimated to be Rs 1.5 crore.

For and against

The Kasturirangan report imposes curbs on industries and construction in the "ecologically sensitive zone" on the 1,600km Ghats, a Unesco world heritage site that passes through six states and is one of the world's 10 "hottest biodiversity spots".

Green activists say the measures will not affect the high-range farmers if they stay put within their areas.

They argue that unless long-term measures are taken to protect the ecology, there will be growing urbanisation of the area with encroachments into the forests. They say this is the "real reason" for the Church's objections.

Still, most of the activists (and local forest-dwelling tribals) are unhappy with the Kasturirangan report and want an earlier report, drawn up by eminent environmental scientist Madhav Gadgil, to be implemented instead.

Kasturirangan's report, they say, is a "watered down" version of Gadgil's and aims to protect less than half the area that Gadgil had identified for conservation. Gadgil himself has criticised the Kasturirangan report.

Environmentalist Harish Vasudevan has accused "vested interests" of spreading the "canard" that the conservation measures would displace farmers.

Green activists have implicated the Ghats' stone-quarrying lobby and timber and land mafia in the protests, citing the arson at the Thamarassery forest office that destroyed records dating back 40 years.

These included files on a forestland encroachment case involving the brother of the local Muslim League MLA. The state BJP has alleged a conspiracy and demanded a case be registered against the MLA and the local bishop.

But the Church has stayed unrelenting. A pastoral letter read in churches in Thamarassery today exhorted the people to continue their protests.

"We need to act to deter the administration and courts from implementing policies that harm the people," read the letter signed by the bishop of the diocese, Mar Remegiose Inchananiyil.

The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church spokesman, Fr Stephen Alathara, has denied that the protests involve communal sentiments.

Political churning

The Church's anger has landed the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front in a spot.

Idukki bishop Mathew Anikuzhikattil has expressed his disenchantment with P.T. Thomas, the local MP from the Congress, and warned that people would not vote for him if he stood for re-election.

Thomas sought to play the controversy down but V.D. Satheesan, a Congress MLA, reacted angrily asking how the priest would take it if the party began dictating who should be bishops.

The Kerala Congress (M), a UDF partner that draws its support from the Christian community, has decided to go along with the Church. Party chairman and state finance minister K.M. Mani has set off speculation by announcing he would attend the CPM plenum in Kozhikode when it begins later this month.

Mani's decision has delighted the Opposition Left, whose past efforts to build bridges with the Church had not been successful.

Left activists marched shoulder to shoulder with priests in the rallies in Idukki and Thamarassery in the past few days. Smelling blood ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Left has called for a state-wide shutdown tomorrow, alleging the Kasturirangan report is not beneficial to farmers.

Chief minister Oommen Chandy has sought to allay the protesters' fears saying the notification is not final and the state government has formed a committee to study the Kasturirangan report.

Once the committee hands in its report, Chandy said, the state would approach the Centre for any changes deemed necessary to Kasturirangan's proposals.

Congress leader and Union minister Vayalar Ravi too has made placatory noises.

"I don't think it (the agitation) needs to be given a communal colour. Most people in these areas would be Church-going and may be conveying their anguish to the priests," he said. "It would be natural for the priests to voice the concerns of the faithful."

The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, which wields considerable influence in central Kerala, too has condemned the Centre's move but the Church of South India has called for stringent measures to protect the Western Ghats in a way that would not affect the common man.