KOCHI: The amicus curiae appointed by the Kerala High Court in the case related to the illegal reclamation and pollution of Vembanad lake on Friday filed a report seeking a directive to the state government to monitor and regulate resorts and their waste disposal for the effective prevention of pollution in the water body.
The amicus curiae also informed the court that the state government itself had carried out a permanent construction in the nature of a houseboat terminal at Kumarakom violating the CRZ notifications and without any clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
The terminal, which can house around 25 boats at a time, had been constructed in such a manner that it protrudes into the lake where there is a notified fish sanctuary.
Though the houseboat terminal had been constructed and inaugurated, it is still not put to use and is lying in an abandoned state. Besides, a private resort has been constructed nearby without authorisation.Though the State Wetland Authority, Kerala (SWAK) had directed demolition of the constructions, nothing had been done by the authorities, including the district collector.
In fact, as the Vembanad lake is a tourist destination, there had been a mushrooming of unauthorised resorts on its banks. There was no control or check by the authorities on the indiscriminate constructions of resorts on the banks of the lake. Hence he sought a report from the state government regarding the construction of the terminal along the lake, which is a Ramsar site, to ascertain whether it had obtained clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, Union Government and the Wetland Authority.
The report also sought a report from the Kottayam and Alappuzha district collectors regarding illegal construction of various resorts and other homestays along the shores of the Vembanad lake and the efforts to regulate them.