Idukki became an epicentre of protests after Gadgil report

In 2013, the elevation territory of Idukki witnessed a spate of protests pursuing the merchandise of the Madhav Gadgil study for protecting the Western Ghats.

Protests erupted aft the Gadgil committee recommended that 37% of the Western Ghats beryllium declared eco-sensitive. Of the 123 villages identified arsenic ecologically delicate areas (ESAs), 48 were located successful Idukki district. Residents were apprehensive that these recommendations would pb to forced evictions and conversion of farmland into protected forests.

Slogans of animals being released to habitations and houses to beryllium painted greenish and prohibition connected farming and constructions were raised connected the streets.

The protests were spearheaded by the High Range Samrakshana Samiti (HRSS), a people’s question nether the Idukki diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church. The precocious Mar Mathew Anikkuzhikattil, the past Bishop of Idukki, criticised the study and led the agitation alongside HRSS wide convener Fr. Sebastian Kochupurakal and ineligible advisor Joyce George.

But determination were immoderate differing voices too. The precocious P.T. Thomas, the past MP of Idukki, faced aggravated backlash from the Church for supporting the report, maintaining that it contained nary anti-farmer measures. His stance yet led the Congress enactment to contradict him a summons for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Left Democratic Front-backed Independent Joyce George won the spot by defeating United Democratic Front campaigner Dean Kuriakose by a borderline of implicit 50,000 votes.

However, 13 years on, the dire predictions that fuelled the protests person not materialised. No residents person been evicted, and nary farmlands person been seized by the Forest department.

The governmental tide has besides shifted. Under the enactment of Bishop Mar John Nellikkunnel, the Idukki diocese adopted a neutral stance, distancing priests from progressive politics. Deprived of the Church’s progressive backing, Mr. George mislaid the 2019 and 2024 parliamentary elections. Today, the HRSS has mostly mislaid its power among the district’s farmers.

Environmentalists constituent to the devastating landslides and floods of 2018 arsenic impervious that the Gadgil report’s warnings were ignored astatine a greater cost.

“The contiguous information of Idukki shows that Gadgil and his recommendations were right,” says environmentalist M.N. Jayachandran. “The protests led by the erstwhile Bishop were unnecessary and disrupted mean beingness for years. Despite the fear-mongering, nary 1 was evicted. The Gadgil recommendations were intelligibly designed to guarantee the semipermanent extortion of this elevation district,” helium says.