THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan approached Shashi Tharoor, MP, seeking urgent intervention regarding an alleged attempt to destroy a forest patch under the National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) at Akkulam, Thiruvananthapuram. The forest land under NCESS has been allegedly destroyed for construction activities.
The filmmaker had sent a letter to the director, NCESS, Akkulam, regarding the construction activities progressing on the patch near his neighbourhood in 2018. Since no response came from the authorities concerned, he has petitioned the MP seeking urgent intervention. “A little bit of the natural ecosystem is still left. They haven’t taken all of it down and if we intervene now, at least the rest can be saved,” says Adoor.
“The strange thing about this anti-social act is that it is being engineered by an institution responsible for finding scientific ways and means to protect and nurture our Earth. I heard from my friend who is an architect about their plans to construct staff quarters on this strip of land. And I could not understand why they would need to clear off every trace of the forest to build their staff quarters...,” Gopalakrishnan wrote in his petition.
The forest patch which lies in a valley formed by three small hills extends over an acre The government body has denied claims of any destruction in the area. Officials stated that the ground clearing was done for constructing a fence to prevent the public from dumping waste in the land.
“There are no construction plans in that forest land. We cleared the land to construct a three metre-long iron fence. People have been dumping chicken waste, plastic and other household waste there. It is a lush forest patch. We only intend to preserve it,” says an NCESS official. “No trees have been cut. The NCESS has over 13.95 acres under it. Of this, only three acres of land have buildings. The rest is all forest land,” he added.