Public perception of environment degradation wrong: Muralee Thummarukudy

Public perception of environment degradation wrong: Muralee Thummarukudy

The public perception that Kerala’s environment is degrading is wrong, disaster management expert Muralee Thummarukudy said here on Sunday. The State’s environment at present is seeing its best days in the past 100 years, he said.

He was speaking at the second edition of the Peruvanam International Village Festival (PIVF) at Sreelakam Convention Centre at Peruvanam, near here.

“People like to hear and say that the environment is getting worse. If you look at the last hundred years, this is the most progressive period for Kerala’s environment, according to all parameters,” he said, citing the drastic drop in deforestation and the expansion of the green canopy. He said the State had become greener as the use of firewood decreased.

However, he said, people had lost their organic relationship with nature and it needed to be restored. “The organic relationship with nature has changed within one generation. It created a notion that even if nature is destroyed, it does not affect us personally,” he said.

He said that art and literature played a major role in creating environmental awareness in Kerala but today such involvement was not enough.

Mr. Thummarukudy said Kerala should accept the reality that the new generation had lost hope in the State.