Thursday, July 8, 2010

Green Dandi project launched

The Green Action for National Dandi Heritage Initiative (Gandhi) memorial project was launched in Dandi, some 50 km off Surat, in coastal areas of Navsari district on Wednesday by Union minister of forest and environment Jairam Ramesh at Dandi.


The project worth Rs 25 crore has been taken up by Societies of Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM), an agency working under the Union environment ministry in collaboration with Gujarat Vidyapith in Ahmedabad and Gujarat Ecology Commission.

While inaugurating the project, Ramesh said, “Guiding principals of Mahatma Gandhi hold great significance even today in every sphere including economic, social and environmental development. This new project will go a long way in conserving environment sustainably with overall development of the society.”

Gopal Krishna Gandhi, chairman Dandi Memorial Committee, said, “Gandhiji was unconsciously an environmentalist. His guiding principals will help in making this project a success.”

S K Nanda, principal secretary, department of forest and environment in Gujarat, said, “The project will focus on four main tools — conservation of coast and coastal resources, adopting nature-based development of resources, encouraging integrated village and community development, promoting eco-tourism and Dandi as an environment positive tourist destination.”

This project is likely to be completed in two years’ time and its funding will be done through World Bank assisted Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) project implemented by SICOM. Under the project, mangrove forestation, promotion of non-conventional energy sources, conservation of water, waste management, establishing carbon neutral villages, improvement in livelihood of the locals, village development, and promotion of Gandhian values will take place.

by : times network

Fighting pollution: Jairam’s pat for Vapi, rap for Ankleshwar

One of the most important landmarks of India’s freedom struggle, Dandi was on Wednesday declared an eco-sensitive zone by Union minister of forest and environment Jairam Ramesh. The minister made the declaration in the presence of chairman of Dandi Memorial Committee Gopal Krishna Gandhi in the coastal town.

Apart from Dandi, three villages surrounding Dandi will also be covered under the Environment Protection Act, 1980, he said. Any new industries that want to set up base at Dandi will now have to function under the Act’s purview. A local monitoring committee comprising locals from Dandi, Matwad, Onjal and Samapar villages of Jalapore taluka of Navsari district will be set up to monitor the procedures. “Maintenance of the eco-sensitive zone will be the responsibility of this committee,” Ramesh said.

The villages have a population of 20,000 in all. The eco-friendly development of the region will complete in couple of years’ time. In another important development, the environment minister said that the Gulf of Kutch too will be declared an eco-sensitive zone soon.

“We might have come late, but now that we have arrived we will do our best to preserve the rightful importance of Dandi,” Ramesh said on the occasion. He also added that this initiative should have been taken up a lot earlier, but “better late than never” is the catch phrase in the case of Dandi. As part of the project, an environment friendly ‘smarak’ (memorial) of Gandhiji will also come up.

Talking to a small gathering, Ramesh said that development of Dandi is a national programme and that there is no politics involved. In this endeavour, both the state and central government are together.

Linking Gandhiji with nature and environment, Gopal Krishna said, “Our aim is to see Dandi as an internationally promoted ecological centre. Gandhi was always linked to nature and environment. While developing this historic place, we have to look for ecological gains. We can achieve this objective by establishing bio-shield steps and making the Dandi beach totally pollution-free.”
 
by : times of india