Kochi: The campaign against the Aranmula airport, headed by the poet Sugathakumari and spearheaded by Hindu Aikya Vedi leader Kummanam Rajasekharan, has called off its 108-day-old relay dharna at Aranmula seeking to scrap the international airport project.
This follows the National Green Tribunal’s cancellation of the environmental clearance given to the project in November 2013 by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.
The Aranmula airport in Pathanamthitta district, billed as the country’s first private greenfield international airport, was promoted by the Chennai-based KGS Group. The Kerala Government had a 10 per cent equity stake in the venture.
The Chennai bench of the NGT last week cancelled the environmental clearance on the grounds that the agency that had carried out the environmental impact study lacked the credentials to do so and that the public hearing was not held in accordance to the norms. The expert appraisal committee of MoEF had recommended environmental clearance for the project on the basis of the environmental impact study and the public hearing.
Parallels have been drawn between the mass campaign against the proposed Silent Valley hydroelectric project back in the 1970-80s and the anti-airport agitation. The Save Silent Valley drive, spearheaded by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, was a watermark event in India’s environmental protection movement.
The drive, which highlighted the threat from the power project to the existence of the Silent Valley evergreen forest which was home to thousands of lion-tailed macaques, an endangered species.
01/06/14 KPM Basheer/Business Line
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This follows the National Green Tribunal’s cancellation of the environmental clearance given to the project in November 2013 by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.
The Aranmula airport in Pathanamthitta district, billed as the country’s first private greenfield international airport, was promoted by the Chennai-based KGS Group. The Kerala Government had a 10 per cent equity stake in the venture.
The Chennai bench of the NGT last week cancelled the environmental clearance on the grounds that the agency that had carried out the environmental impact study lacked the credentials to do so and that the public hearing was not held in accordance to the norms. The expert appraisal committee of MoEF had recommended environmental clearance for the project on the basis of the environmental impact study and the public hearing.
Parallels have been drawn between the mass campaign against the proposed Silent Valley hydroelectric project back in the 1970-80s and the anti-airport agitation. The Save Silent Valley drive, spearheaded by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, was a watermark event in India’s environmental protection movement.
The drive, which highlighted the threat from the power project to the existence of the Silent Valley evergreen forest which was home to thousands of lion-tailed macaques, an endangered species.
01/06/14 KPM Basheer/Business Line
