Reclamation of paddy fields and wetland and razing of hills are rampant in the State, chairman of Assembly committee on environment C.P. Mohammed has said.

After tabling a report of the committee in the Assembly on Wednesday, Mr. Mohammed told reporters that the officers of the Revenue Department were shirking their responsibility of enforcing the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act.

Sensors would be installed at 10 strategic locations in the Chilika lake as a part of the monitoring system to telemetrically transmit data to the research centre on real time basis, every 15 minut

States with abundant natural resources and less economic activity are environmentally most sustainable in India, while it is just the opposite in the case of those with high intensity of economic activities, according to the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) here.

The Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) for Indian States 2011, a study by the Centre for Development Finance under the 1970-founded IFMR, notes that the index for two years — 2009 and 2011 — shared this common characteristic.

A meeting of environmentalists held here on Tuesday to discuss the Draft National Water Policy (2012) called for a campaign against moves to turn water into a commodity.

The meeting was organised by the Salim Ali Foundation, Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishath, Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD) and the Chalakudy Puzha Samrakshana Samithy. The meeting called for a serious review of the draft policy. Former Water Resources Minister N. K. Premachandran said that water was described as a commodity at four places in the draft policy.

The Yashoram Infra Developers Private Limited has informed the Kerala High Court that the implementation of the proposed sky city project would not cause any damage to coastal ecosystems or the backwater system in the city.

In an affidavit, the company said that no reclamation of backwaters or wetland was needed. The affidavit said that there was no violation of Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2000. Sky city project envisaged construction of two flyovers over the Chilavanoor backwaters.

The Pampa Parirakshana Samiti (PPS), a Kozhencherry-based prominent environmental group that has been campaigning for the cause of Pampa since the past two decades, have called upon the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to take immediate steps to cancel the clearance granted for the proposed greenfield airport project at Aranmula.

In a letter to the secretary, MoEF, the PPS general secretary, N.K. Sukumaran Nair, alleged that the clearance granted by the Environmental Appraisal Committee (F No. 10-51/2010-IA) for the KGS Aranmula Greenfield Airport project was based on certain “undisclosed and incorrect information, without considering the ground reality.’’