Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi opposes acquisition of Kerala’s Ambukuthi forest land for government medical college

The Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi (WPSS) has come out against the Kerala government’s move to acquire 11.27 hectares (28 acres) of forest land at Ambukuthi in Mananthavady for the Wayanad Government Medical College.

A meeting of the WPSS demanded that the government withdraw the move, alleging that the order handing over 8.97 hectares at Puthoor in Sulthan Bathery and 2.34 hectares at Kappad for compensatory afforestation in lieu of the land to be acquired at Ambukuthi was “nothing but clear deception.”

“These lands (Puthoor and Kappad) were previously in the possession of farmers and came under the Forest department as part of voluntary rehabilitation implemented under the Rebuild Kerala project in the wake of severe human-wildlife conflict. These areas have already turned into forest land,” the WPSS said in a statement on Friday.

It further said that a private trust had earlier provided 50 acres of land free of cost at Madakkimala, near Kalpetta, for the construction of the medical college. “Thousands of large trees worth crores of rupees were cut and removed from this land. Only after this was a decision taken not to establish the medical college at Madakkimala. Narrow political interests were behind it,” the statement alleged.

The committee pointed out that thousands of acres of land vested with the government and several hectares of plantation land with expired leases were available in the district. As such, the State Forest department and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change should not adopt a stand facilitating the use of forest land for the medical college. The government should instead construct buildings for the medical college on the land available free of cost at Madakkimala or on other government land, the committee demanded.

WPSS president N. Badusha presided.