Land-use pattern of Ponmudi in for changes

Land-use pattern of Ponmudi in for changes

 

The land-use pattern of the ecologically fragile Ponmudi hills will be changing drastically in the coming yeas with the implementation of various projects there. The Forest Department has decided to de-notify the planted areas of Mechiston estate, which it had taken over under the Kerala Forest (Vesting and Management of Ecologically fragile Lands) Ordinance, 2001, paving the way for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Space Technology in the area.

 

The campus of the institute of Indian Institute of Technology standard, which is proposed to come up on 100 acres of the tea estate, will be a major project with residential facilities and a captive power plant. The Indian Space Research Organization had entered into an understanding with the owners of the estate for transferring part of the estate area for the campus. Through the Forest Department has concluded that the estate is not an adequately fragile area to justify its continued vesting in the Government, the project may still have to go through the environmental impact assessment process. A number of ecotourism and hotel projects proposed to be started on the hills, on the other hand, will not have to go through the environmental clearance process, as the altitude of the Ponmudi hills is less than 1,000 meters (provided that the investment is kept low)). The Government is planning a major ecotourism project at the top station where the shola grasslands are receding on account human interference.  A large fire had destroyed considerable extent of forests near the hill station last year.

The importance of the forest here is the altitudinal variation and consequent differences in the types of plants that grow there. The kallar valley at the lowest region is below 300m from the mean sea level. The upper areas are contiguous with the forest of Agasthyarkoodam. The Agasthyarkoodam and its environs have been identified as a biodiversity hotspot. However proposal for declaration of the Ponmudi forest as a protected area has been in cold storage since the 1980s.

 (The Hindu, 8^th July  2007)