Green policy shelved after Church-led protests

The federal environment ministry has suspended the implementation of a plan that would have led to the eviction of thousands of families following protests led by the powerful Church in southern Kerala state, writes Anto Akkara.
“We are happy that the implementation of the policy has been suspended,” Bishop Remigiose Inchananiyil of Thamassery diocese in the Wayand region of Kerala told The Tablet on 31 December.

The policy provides for the eviction of many “settler” families and established businesses that have been on their land for decades.

Bishop Inchananiyil was one of the Catholic bishops who led thousands of faithful including priests and nuns along with people of other faiths against the implementation of the report on Western Ghats – a mountain range along the west coast of south India – in late November.

The environment protection recommendations of the panel, the protesters claimed, were “draconian measures” that would have affected nearly two million farmer families in the special “eco-zones” identified by the panel. Many of the affected families are Christians who moved to the hills decades ago, cleared jungles and started farming along the mountain slopes and valleys.