THE HINDU
6 January 2011
Staff Reporter
Plantation owners' strategy draws flak

PALAKKAD: Four environmental organisations have demanded that the State government and the Forest Department take stern action against some plantation owners who were trying to destroy the fragile ecology and environment of the Nelliampathy forest area in Palakkad district.

In a statement released at a media conference here on Wednesday, Tony Thomas of One Earth One Life, S. Guruvayurappan of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, Ashok Nemmara of the Ashrayam Rural Development Society and A. Krishnankutty of the Janaseva Sanghom, pointed out that Nelliampathy was one of 35 ‘bio-diversity hotpots' that had to be protected.

This plea has a special resonance in 2011, which is being observed as the International Forest Year. But in ecologically important areas such as Nelliampathy, some plantation owners feel that the issue was not protecting the ecology but protecting the plantations and their workers, they said.

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