Nearly 700 families of Puthanangadi in Aroorgramapanchayat have formed an action council to protect Vembanad lake from pollution.

Experts have pointed out the need to set up an environmental surveillance centre for Vembanad lake with statutory powers to check the increasing pollution in the lake.

A large number of people participated in a protest chain organised by the Matsya Thozhilali Federation (AITUC) demanding abandoning of the sea plane project, in Muhamma near here on Wednesday.

The participants included fishermen and other workers and people's representatives. AITUC State general secretary Kanam Rajendran inaugurated the protest. He said that the government was trying to hand over wet lands and lakes to private companies by arranging infrastructure there by spending money from public exchequer.

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.

ALAPPUZHA: Poor rainfall, increase in the salinity of Vembanad lake and oil leak from houseboats and government service boats have adversely affected the 'puncha' cultivation in Kuttanad.

A study conducted by Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), a Bangalore-based non-governmental organisation, in association with the Lake Protection Forum, an organisation of fishermen, over the first three months of this year on the Vembanad lake has shown that the level of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) has increased and the level of dissolved oxygen has decreased over these three months.

Both the Congress-led United Democratic Front Government and Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front Opposition in Kerala on Wednesday came out against the Supreme Court direct

Coinciding with the 41-day Mandalam season connected to Sabarimala, fishermen and clam collectors on the Vembanad Lake are engaged in a campaign to cleanse the lake of its plastic impurities.

Draft proposals for formation of authority