Renewed 'Save Silent Valley' call

By Anand Parthasarathy

KOCHI, JULY 23. The Central Government official who undertook the first official study in the 1970s, of the proposal to harness electricity within Silent Valley, has recalled the processes which culminated in the hydel project being called off and the region being declared a national park.

Reacting to the current controversy surrounding the Kerala Electricity Minister's avowed intention of resurrecting the hydro electric project, Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman of the M.S.S. Research Foundation, Chennai, who holds UNESCO's Cousteau Chair in Ecotechnololgy, has stated that as Principal Secretary in the Union Agriculture Ministry, holding charge of Forests, he visited Silent Valley in 1979 and conducted a detailed study of the benefits and risks associated with the proposed electricity project. In August that year, he proposed that ``the entire area of 39,000 hectares consisting of Silent Valley, New Amarambalam Forest, Kunda Forest and Attapadi Reserve Forest should be developed into a National Rain Forest Biosphere Reserve''.

He also suggested alternative methods of obtaining the much- needed electricity and water, adding: ``Every new source from which man has increased his power on earth has been made at the cost of damage to the environment, that he cannot repair and could not foresee''. Based on Prof. Swaminathan's report, Indira Gandhi convened a meeting in 1980, soon after she became Prime Minister, which was attended by the then Kerala Chief Minister Mr. E.K. Nayanar. This resulted in the setting up of the M.G.K. Menon Committee, which went into all the ecological aspects.

Eco-tourism

``It is not clear to me what the new technology referred to by the Minister for Construction of Subsurface Dams implies,'' Prof. Swaminathan adds, ``In my view Kerala's future lies in health-and-eco-tourism. This is an avenue that can be safeguarded only by protecting the remaining forests and environment. Silent Valley is particularly important for the conservation of Kerala's unique medicinal plant wealth. I, therefore, reiterate my 1979 recommendation''.

Meanwhile, other environmental action groups have written to the Kerala Chief Minister, Mr. A.K. Anthony, expressing their anxiety. Dr. Nanditha C. Krishna, Honorary Director of the Chennai-based C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre, in a faxed message to him, writes: ``We are extremely shocked to read the announcement by your Minister for Electricity that your Government proposes to revive the hydel project in Silent Valley. Silent Valley is a unique pocket of tropical biodiversity left in South India. It would be a tragedy if this were to be destroyed. It was declared as a national park by the late Rajiv Gandhi in 1984 and is even under consideration by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.'' Writing ``on behalf of environmentalists everywhere'', Dr. Krishna urges the Kerala Government to ``please stop the move immediately and ensure that Silent Valley is preserved for future generations for all time''.

The State Council of the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) which met in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday also sent a petition to the Kerala Chief Minister requesting him to ``abandon the current move'', suggesting that the hydel issue is ``being raked up for ulterior motives''. The Parishad's letter adds: ``Kerala has more than enough of other (energy) resources and there is no need to disturb Silent Valley for this purpose''.

Environmental clearance

Environmental experts in the State generally agree that even were the Kerala Government to apply formally to the Centre for its nod to set up a hydel project in the Valley, the chances of its obtaining the necessary environmental clearances are virtually non-existent, given the heightened awareness of conservation issues in these 20 years and the promulgation of much stiffer environmental norms for projects that involve forests.

Perhaps with an inkling of this, the Kerala Forest Minister, Mr. K. Sudhakaran, speaking to the media in Palakkad over the weekend, promised that ``the Forest Department will not make any compromise on the issue of protecting the environment''. But confusing signals continue to emanate from the State Government with the Electricity Minister, Mr. Kadavoor Sivadasan, who first mooted the idea of reviving the hydel project, on the floor of the Legislative Assembly, being quoted two days later, saying: ``The water that flows through Silent Valley is not meant to quench the thirst of the lion-tailed macaque alone. It should benefit people also''.

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