High incidence of Hepatitis A in two grama panchayats

A study conducted by the district unit of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project into the reported high incidence of Hepatitis A infection in Thrikovilvattam and Mayyanad grama panchayats on the outskirts of Kollam city found that the disease spread from a common source-contaminated pipeline water supplied by the Kerala Water Authority. Ninety-two persons of Thrikovilvattam and 27 of Mayyanad were diagnosed with the disease last week.

Environmentalists have welcomed the intervention of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in protecting the Sasthamcotta freshwater lake in Kollam district.

Mr. Chandy will chair a high-level meeting in this regard on May 8. Terming it a step in the right direction, eco-activist V.K. Madhusudhanan, who had been taking up the cause for over a decade now, said conservation efforts should be supported by genuine, eco-friendly solutions. The lake was listed as a Ramsar site in 2002. Livelihood activities and biodiversity protection was also important. Serious concerns were raised only when the water level dropped alarmingly.

Syzygium travncoricum, a tree endemic to Kerala, is no longer ‘critically endangered’ as classified on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Field studies conducted by the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) in the wake of the IUCN classification suggest that the tree can now move to the ‘endangered’ list.

Known locally as kulavetti or vadhamkolli, the tree entered the IUCN’s ‘critically endangered’ list on the basis of a Conservation Assessment Management Plan (CAMP) workshop conducted under the Biodiversity Conservation Prioritisation Project India in 1998. The IUCN had then suggested periodic updating of the classification based on information provided by authoritative agencies.

A large area of the freshwater lake has turned grassland threatening the Ramsar site

The State’s largest freshwater lake and one of the 26 Ramsar sites in the country, Sasthamcotta Lake in the district is fast becoming a grassland.
While there are frequent government announcements of substantial fund allocations for conservation measures, nothing seems to be done for the lake which has been drying up fast since the last one decade

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Moves afoot to form task force under the Revenue Department. The Industries Department is understood to have mooted a proposal for constituting a task force under the Mining and Geology Department to check the exploitation and transportation of metals and minerals.

Indefinite relay satyagraha in front of panchayat office

A joint action council of environmental activists and people of Kalanjur panchayat, near Pathanapuram, in the district began an indefinite relay Satyagraha in front of the panchayat office on Monday demanding immediate closure of three granite quarries and a manufactured sand plant (sand making plant) operating there. The quarries are at Kalliparamala, Inchapara and Rakshasanpara, and the sand plant is at Pothupara.

The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has decided not to grant environmental clearance to any proposals coming under the Ecologically Sensitive Zone-1 of the Western Ghats.

The decision comes in the wake of a direction issued by the National Green Tribunal that the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) report should be considered while granting environmental clearance to projects in the ESZ-1 in the Western Ghats. ESZ-I areas are those which fall outside the boundaries of wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests but have been given the status of a protected area in the WGEEP report.

Kerala Cabinet granted Rs. 25 crore additionally to the State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) on Wednesday to tide over its financial problems.

With this the total grants to the KSRTC during this financial year rose to Rs. 100 crore, in addition to the original Budget provisions. The Cabinet authorised Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to appoint a one man commission to study the problems related to backwardness of Nadar community.

District panchayat chief says allocated sum insufficient

District panchayat president S. Jayamohan has said that in the backdrop of Kollam being declared drought hit, the State government should make an emergency allocation of Rs.50 crore to solve the district’s drinking water problem. In a statement here on Tuesday, Mr. Jayamohan said the amount was urgently required to meet the expenses for transporting drinking water, pipeline extension, cleaning of freshwater wetlands, compensation to farmers who had suffered crop loss on account of the drought, renovation of the Kallada Irrigation Project (KIP) canals, and repair of pumps owned by the Kerala Water Authority.

The calving season of Nilgiri tahrs is under way at the park

The Eravikulam National Park, abode of the highly endangered Nilgiri tahr ( Nilgiritragus hylocrius ), will remain closed to visitors till April 4.
Chief Wildlife Warden V. Gopinathan said the two-month closure was an annual affair during the calving season of the tahrs. The closure was ordered on the basis of a report submitted by K.V. Subramanian, Field Director (Project Tiger), that the calving season of these mountain goats had begun at the park. Mr. Subramanian told The Hindu that kids were seen from the later part of January. Many of the female tahrs were heavily pregnant.