Environment

Space institute to axe fragile land

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has agreed to the land in Ponmudi Hills, near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, for setting up the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology. After many a controversy regarding the land, which saw the government and the ISRO in a tug of war, the Space Institute campus is coming up on the Ponmudi Hills, which has been earmarked as ecologically fragile.
As the country has made advances in the field of space, a Space Institute is a necessity and no one would ever question this. But the real question is about the location chosen. The ISRO from the beginning of the proposal was quite determined for a location at a higher altitude. They opine that the campus should be at a higher altitude, as that could only cater to their requirements. This itself is contradictory as most of the reputed Space Institutes in the world have their campuses in the plains and an observatory at a high altitude. When almost all the ISRO's establishments are on the plains, why can't it think of the plains? Why is it that they want to infringe into the ecologically fragile land? The land that has been chosen is entirely a forest stretch and is thick with threatened ''Gluta travancorica'', which is included in the red list of International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
The so-called ''development in space technology'' is just killing our ecology. Moreover, it would only augment more construction works in the area, which could spell a death knell to the green canopy.
Another danger lies in the fact that if construction works are allowed in the forested area, the estate owners nearby could also challenge the State for the same. They can also argue that if a forest area is not fragile, how can an estate be termed as ecologically fragile.
The Kerala government has decided to hand over 100 acres of wooded forests on the Ponmudi hills, adjoining the Merchiston and Ponmudi estates, for the Space Institute. Yet another controversy had roped in he revenue and the Forest Department. While the Forest Department had reported the area to be a forestland, the Revenue people say it is just another revenue piece of land. Were the revenue officials blind enough not to notice the hundred and more years aged trees in the area?
Kerala, one of the greenest states in India, is fast loosing its greenery and concrete jungles are coming up. Only a few stretches of greenery is left and that too is being axed in the name of development. It is time that we all rise up against such a menace and fight together for protecting the few stretch of greenery from being axed.