ALAPPUZHA: As a result of the dwindling condition of the sacred groves in the district, which tops in the number of sacred groves in the state, Kerala Kavu, Paristhithi Samrakshana Samithi has decided to approach the government to demand immediate steps be taken to protect the sacred groves in the district.
The groves are enriched with very valuable resources, including medicinal and edible plants and expensive trees.
N. N. Gopikuttan, Secretary of the Samithi, said that they would approach both the state government and the district panchayat to earmark a permanent fund for conserving the groves. “The state level protest in this connection will begin in Alappuzha district next week,” he said.
However, a report prepared by the Committee chaired by state minister for Forest, Sports and Cinema Thiruvanchur Radhakrishnan, which was tabled in the Assembly session on March 10 last year, had revealed indiscriminate grazing in the total area of the groves in the state for the last the few decades.
However, he says, the long pending demand of the sacred groves protection group to allot the fund sanctioned by the Centre and state budget for the protection of sacred groves has been futile.
The fresh call for the dispersal of the fund comes after the Assembly Committee on Forest, Environment and Tourism tabled a report in March last year, citing destruction of scared groves amid massive constructions in place of ancestral homes. Alappuzha, the birth place of the Samithi, has at least 1,200 sacred groves.
T. P. Ramachandra Panickar, former district president of the Samithi, accused the government of channelizing funds which were being allotted by the Central government for several years for other purposes.
“The Centre is providing Rs 1 crore every year. Even though the groves have been destroyed over the years, the authorities have shown no interest in utilising the fund properly. The money should be used for the development of groves immediately. Nearly one lakh groves in the State are still waiting for annual grants. The renovation of small temples attached to the groves should also be supported”, he demanded
The Samithi is currently conducting seminars and awareness campaigns to make people aware of the ecological advantages of sacred green patches.
The fund was allotted considering the fact that the sacred groves were so valauble. The owners of the groves have been restricted from any constructions or other development activities in the compound.
As many as 475 species of birds, 100 species of mammals, 156 species of reptiles, 91 species of amphibians, 196 species of fishes and 150 varieties of butterflies can be seen in the groves in the state.
Though there were about 10,000 groves in Travancore before the formation of Kerala, only over 1,200 of them remain now, the report says.
