Abstract :Environmental fundamentalism often ignores the humanitarian aspects of development. The human life
style has changed a lot from the primitive culture of eco-friendly life style to modern civilised and citylike
life style. Often the environmental fundamentalists concentrate on urban areas, and try to impose
fundamentalist view on the village people. This is often supported by the Government since the village
people are voice less. It often creates some issues in the rural areas especially in a state like Kerala where
there are least regional imbalances, as compared to other states of India. The fundamentalists obtained
the labelling ‘World Heritage Zone’ for the Western Ghats from the UN, in such a manner which is
criticized and objected by the UN itself. With a view to cover the UN objections to that proposals, the
Government appointed a High Level Committee chaired by Prof. Gadgil. As per the request of the MPs
of the region he also suggests to exclude certain areas of Western Ghats from the labelling, which is
accepted by the Government. But the criteria of exclusion neglected the concerns of thickly populated
remote villages in the region.
The article tries to justify the arguments and demands farmers union in the region on the basis of the
‘Report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel’ chaired by Prof. Madhav Gadgil, Submitted to
‘The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India’ on 31 August 2011. It also discusses
the historical perspective of the environmental awareness to find more light to the issues. The irony of
environmental promotion which ignores the eco friendly life style of the villages is criticised, on the basis
of Gadgil committee report.