V D Satheesan MLA on Friday alleged that many religious leaders are trying to spread misconceptions amid the farmers of the state regarding Gadgil report.
“They are even threatening to defeat those candidates who are in favour of the Gadgil report,” said.
He said he would support the Gadgil report whatever be the cost for it, even if it is his MLA seat. He was speaking at the 16th P V Thampi Memorial Endowment Award ceremony in Kochi on Friday. The MLA said many people even misled the Chief Minister on this subject.
“There is no dispute over the subject that the Western Ghats is a reservoir of Kerala and has to be protected. At the same time, the farmers also should be protected from encroachments,” he said. Acclaimed writer N S Madhavan gave away the award to Kalloor Balan, an environmentalist from Palakkad, for planting lakhs of saplings along roadsides.
The award was instituted by the Environment Monitoring Forum. Madhavan said an awareness to preserve nature was the result of the Green Revolution.
“There was a time when penury gripped man in its all intensity and our country had exploited nature to do away with the poverty. But by mid-20th Century, there came an awareness to protect nature as a result of Green Revolution which offered the idea of self-sufficiency,” he said. Dr C J John and T A Varkey also spoke.