Summary:
Kochi, Jan 17 (PTI) Noted environmentalist Prof M K Prasad, a prominent figure in the historic grassroot level movement to save the evergreen tropical rain forests in Kerala"s Silent Valley from destruction, passed away on Monday morning, his colleagues said here.
He was 89.
He breathed his last at a private hospital here while undergoing treatment for Covid related complications, they said.
Prasad was a guiding force behind the national movement against the state government"s move to set up a hydro-power project in Silent Valley in Palakkad district in the 1970s.
Bowing to unrelenting pressure from ecologists, the government was forced to abandon the project.
The struggle was called off in the early 80s after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assured that Silent Valley forests will be protected.