Bhubaneswar: Eminent environmentalist and founder of Center for Ecological Sciences, Madhav Dhananjaya Gadgil, Sunday, said that the authorities are abusing people’s rights on forests to promote commercial entities that profit from the destruction of biodiversity.
Gadgil was addressing the 11th edition of the three-day Odisha Environment Congress-2020 that began here Sunday. The main theme of this year’s session is ‘Environment and Biodiversity’. On the inaugural day of the event, chief guest Gadgil spoke about several important environmental issues.
Gadgil was the former member of Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India and the Head of Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) of 2010, popularly known as the Gadgil Commission.
The expert said that corruption at bureaucratic level over environment issues is very big and that includes state of Odisha too. He said that his reports and suggestions as chairman of The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel were never taken seriously and were labelled as favourable to environment and environmentalists and not to development.
“The authorities are abusing people’s rights to promote commercial entities that profit from the destruction of biodiversity. Such attitude is dissuading people from conserving biodiversity. In Odisha, the Niyamgiri hills, with its forests and springs sacred to Kondhs, is a striking example of such unreasonable practice,” Gadgil said.
“Those in power should now realise the critical role the environment plays in the well-being of the masses. If the path of environment development chosen by us is not to lead further and further into the impoverishment of the masses of our population, we must be careful of the way we treat the resources of our environment,” he added.
He said that village committees should be involved in preserving natural heritage of Indian forests.
He also said, “We must not cut the wild food plants and trees in the sanctuaries as they are widely used by local tribes and animals. These plnts and trees play a crucial role in providing food security.”
On the occasion, Orissa Environment Congress secretary Sudarshan Das said, “Biodiversity can be defined as the variety and variability of life on earth. Starting from pristine forest covers to the stunning coral reefs of deep oceans, from the mangrove dominated marshlands to the glittery sand dunes of the desert, each environment acts as a host to the numerous indigenous species of flora and fauna that live there.”
“A healthy environment ensures the sustainability of different ecosystems. A degrading environment is responsible for the loss of biodiversity,” he added.