The Sabarimala pilgrim season will begin in two months. However, apart from a few bathing ghats and 100 new toilets, the project to abate pollution at Pampa River has not progressed much.

State told not to treat eco protection as a soft subject

The State government has failed to implement various Centrally sponsored projects aimed at rejuvenating the Pampa, the Vembanad Lake, and the Kuttanad water system, N.K. Sukumaran Nair, Pampa Parirakshana Samiti (PPS) general secretary, has said. Mr. Nair told The Hindu that the government should stop treating environment protection and nature conservation as soft subjects.

Aggressive human intervention, especially indiscriminate sand mining in southern Kerala's major rivers such as the Pampa, the Manimala and the Achankoil, has driven almost all the tributaries of th

Collector V.N.

Amalabharathom programme at Sabarimala concludes

Over 3,200 volunteers of the Amalabharathom campaign, attached to Mata Amritanandamayi Math, took part in a two-day cleaning drive which concluded at Sabarimala here on Sunday. A host of prominent people, including former union Minister O. Rajagopal; Amrita University vice chancellor P. Venkat Rangan; and a good number of professionals from India and abroad took part in the campaign.

The Revolutionary Youth Front has called upon the State government to implement the recommendations of the Assembly Committee on Environment to protect wetlands and paddy fields in Aranmula.

In a statement here on Wednesday, Saleem P. Chacko, secretary of the organisation’s State unit, alleged that the promoters of a private airport project proposed in the locality had managed to obtain various clearances for the project through the backdoor, violating the laws of the land.

During the season of water regattas a river here has almost dried up. The water level in the Varattar which links the Pampa and the Manimalayar has been going down for the past 25 years. Even during the monsoon there is no water flow in the 9.5-kilometre-long river.

The sand mining has deepened the river bed level at the originating point near Arattupuzha. Instead of a bridge a short bund was constructed there 30 years ago which prevents the natural flow of water. Moreover, encroachments are rampant on either side of the river. On the encroached part of the river people have planted coconut trees and other plants.

Kochi: In the abode of Lord Ayappa, devotees seeking a darshan must take a dip in the Pampa.

Environment directorate official inspects airport project site

The row over the proposed private airport project at Aranmula has taken a new turn with the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) reportedly taking a serious view of the conversion of paddy fields and wetlands for setting up the project.

The MoEF had taken note of a report in The Hindu on February 2 (Airport project triggers widespread protest) and sought clarifications from the State government on the allegations that the site identified for the project included paddy fields and wetlands.

Reviving its preference for hydel systems as sources of sustainable power generation, the State once again is opening up investment opportunities in ‘green' power with the identification of 57 small hydro-electric projects that have a combined capacity to generate nearly 170 MW of power (more than 440 million units a year).

The ‘green power house' is being opened up after a gap of two decades and is a key feature that expects to lure investors through Emerging Kerala 2012.