COIMBATORE: Deepak Srivastava, principal chief conservator of forests and member secretary of Tamil Nadu State Wetland Authority has directed the district forest officer (DFO) of Nilgiris Division to take action against officials of Salem railway division and tourism department officials who are responsible for degradation of wetlands.
Deepak Srivastava issued the direction after a parking lot was built on a swamp adjacent to the Ooty railway station, and construction was carried out around the Ooty lake, which is a freshwater ecosystem, in violation of Supreme Court and Madras High Court orders on these matters.
“Any unmindful construction activities shall completely jeopardize the flow of benefits of non-marketable invaluable ecosystem goods and services to the communities depending on this wetland. This kind of deliberate act of conversion of the swamps, marshes and natural lakes which are natural sponges for groundwater recharge, water purification, biodiversity conservation and climate regulation needs to be stopped in the larger public interest and penal action should be initiated against the irresponsible officials of the concerned government departments and others as per the provisions of the Environment Protection Act 1986,” said Deepak Srivastava
The Member Secretary Tamil Nadu State Wetland Authority has directed the Nilgiris DFO to submit an action report within 15 days. “Wetlands which are spread over more than 2.25 hectares should be protected as per rule 4 of the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules 2017 irrespective of the notification and ownership Currently, the ground truthing of all the wetlands covered by the shape files prepared by the ISRO across the State including the Nilgiris District is in progress and a status report in this regard should be sent to the Madras High Court in suo motu petition and hence such wetlands where the ground truthing is still to be done and those are yet to be notified under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules 2017 should be protected from all kinds of degradation,” the order issued by Deepak Srivastava stated.
While Salem railway division clarified that the heritage value of Ooty station will not be affected during renovation works, it remained silent on the damage to the swamp. Tourism officer Uma Shankar told TNIE that district collector M Aruna and DFO S Gowtham inspected the construction carried out at Ooty Lake on Thursday and that they are awaiting their reply.
Shapefiles
Shapefiles are District satellite imageries of the wetlands mentioned in the National Wetlands Inventory Assessment Report 2011 of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India.