'Time to think of conserving forests'

Station director of Akashavani lauds role of radio in imparting awareness among masses

Former secretary to  forest and environment department A N Yellappa Reddy said, including Western Ghats to UNESCO’s world heritage list would be apt, as most of the forest is already destroyed in the name of progress.

He was speaking at an interaction programme on ‘role of media in developmental process’ here on Tuesday. He said, encroaching forest land for the purpose is not development. Among 45,000 applications pending at the Centre for permission for mining, 19,000 belongs to Karnataka.

“Our people are keen on constructing roads and conduct other harmful activities in the area where environment conservation has its priority.”

He said, western ghats are reserve bank of water and vegetation of the region plays an important role. 

There are records of about 30,000 mm rain per day. Floods are nothing but result of deforestation. 

Citing an example of USA, Reddy said, residents of New York opposed the construction of six thousand kilometre road inside the forest during 2006, knowing its importance in protecting lives. 

They unanimously argued forest was utmost importance than road and electricity. Michel Domnick, who led the movement there would be in India to address the Parliament. 

Not only Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh are also opposing the inclusion of forest to world heritage list. “They would repent in future, when environmental issues become irreversible,” he added.

Regarding tourism banned at Tiger reserve forests, he said, the ban is welcomed but proper regulations should be done.

Animals also have right to live, as humans. Most of forest region is already destroyed and their habitat is disturbed a lot already. No one has concern for eco-system preservation, rather humans are interested in causing much harm to it. 

Humans enter into space of wild animals and when they attack them, they blame the animals and forest department for loss of life and injuries. 

He said, components of gross happiness as an index of progress are protecting environment and development along with technology progress without harming eco-balance of the system. 

Development does not mean emptying nature’s bounty or leaving environment in danger.

Station director of Akashavani Vijaya Haran, said, all media are hurrying towards development, but how successful they are in an acceptable way is the question. 

Though there were fears that radio would disappear with the advent of large number of private television channels, it has proved everyone wrong as it continues to play a major role in imparting information, education and entertainment. While objectives of private channels remain confined, radio has widespread role.

She propounded that radio not only creates awareness, helps in personality development among intellectual class but has its strong influence on rural, women, youth and farmers. 

Haran said, she has encountered many successful people in her life who owe their success to the Akashavani. 

She opined that phone-in programmes of Akashavani have literally created a wave of revolution among people.

Deputy director of Information department A R Prakash, Srinivasan and others were present.