Indira as Prime Minister saved unique rainforests in Kerala: Book
Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister saved one of world’s unique rain forests by overruling her own party's stand to set up a mega hydel power project in Kerala’s Silent Valley, says a new book.
The book titled ‘Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature’
authored by senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh says both the Congress and the CPI(M) in Kerala wanted to build a hydroelectric project across the Kunthipuzha River that runs through Silent Valley, home to the one of the most endangered primates of India—lion-tailed macaque.
Referring to the fourdecade-old Silent Valley movement of Kerala, the book says powerful Congress leader K Karunakaran and party’s local MP V S Vijayaraghavan were in support of the project proposed by the Kerala State Electricity Board(KSEB) in Silent Valley nestled in the high mountains of the Western Ghats.
“Indira Gandhi took almost three years to discuss, debate and decide against it in October 1983,” says the book to be launched on June 10.
The supporters of the hydel project across the river in Palakkad district had argued that the development of the Malabar region of Kerala would be affected if the project was dropped.
Ramesh, a former Union Environment Minister, described Silent Valley Movement as second most important landmark in India’s environment history after the Chipko Movement.
He said it was a very tough fight as all the powerful political personalities were on one side and all the environmentalists and activists who really have no political influence were on the other side.
Ramesh said Gandhi had expressed her strong views on the Silent Valley through her letters sent to Chief Ministers of Kerala including CPI(M)’s E K Nayanar and Congress leader K Karunakaran.
The Congress leader said his book on Gandhi was done by drawing extensively from her unpublished letters, notes, messages and memos.
The book offers a lively, conversational narrative of a relatively little known but fascinating aspect of the former Prime Minister's tumultuous life, Ramesh said.