THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the Supreme Court takes up a slew of review petitions regarding women’s entry to Sabarimala on Tuesday, a committee appointed by the apex court has submitted a damning report on how indiscriminate commercial development is happening around the hill-temple in gross violation of existing laws. The report pointed out that such haphazard development has hardly benefitted pilgrims for whom they were supposedly undertaken and also has huge ecological ramifications.In its interim report submitted to the apex court on October 31 (the report has been accessed by TOI), the central empowered committee (CEC) said that Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), and successive governments that have ruled Kerala, have studiously ignored the Sabarimala Master Plan and have violated forest and wildlife laws in a manner detrimental to the flora and fauna of the protected forests of Periyar Tiger Reserve and Ranni Forest Division. Following a petition by environmentalist Sobhindran, on September 13 the SC had directed the CEC to look into non-compliance of the Sabarimala Master Plan and submit a report within six weeks.The report noted upfront that though the Sabarimala Master Plan was approved as far back as 2007, to date there is no Layout Plan, stipulated as the mandatory first step to guide all development activity. “The TDB officials were unable to make available to the CEC any Layout Plan for any of the three locations, namely Nilackal, Pamba and Sannidhanam. Instead, CEC was told that the Layout Plan is still under preparation,” the interim report said.The committee, chaired by T V Jayakrishnan, also observed that there is no clarity on the extent of forest land allotted to TDB and other agencies associated with Sabarimala pilgrimage and the actual extent of land occupied by them. “Prima facie there appears to be large scale violation of the conditions of approvals granted by Ministry of Environment and Forests,” the report said.The LDF government appears to be unaware of the contents of the CEC’s interim report. “The government is aware of such a report submitted before the Supreme Court though we have not accessed the report and scrutinised it. The findings of the report fully reflect the reality at Sabarimala. There has been a lot of illegal constructions at Sabarimala and the government has a firm stand similar to the findings of the committee,” devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran told TOI. He added that the Layout Plan will be approved at the earliest without fail as pointed out by the CEC.The interim report pointed out that even though the Master Plan prescribes that no permanent construction should be undertaken within 50 metres of the river bank at Pamba, TDB has undertaken construction of new buildings right on the river bed. “One such building is stated to be Ramamoorthy Mandapam which was completely washed away during the floods. The buildings which have been severely damaged and are still seen on the river bed include the Annadanam Mandapam, hotel complex, some toilet blocks and Maramathu complex,” the report said. It added buildings and other structures on the riverbed have resulted in deflection of the flow of the river, which in turn has resulted in largescale damage to the left bank of the river.The CEC also expressed serious concerns about upcoming projects involving Sabarimala of which two have been approved by the Centre. This includes Sabarimala-Erumeli-Pamba-Sannidhanam and Sri Padmanabha Swamy-Aranmula-Sabarimala being designated as ‘spiritual circuits’ under Swadesh Darshan scheme of ministry of tourism. Concern was also raised about development of mid-way shelters and car parking facilities at Sabarimala approved by state-run Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and construction of Punya Darshan complex at Sannidhanam by Kerala tourism.The committee emphasised that Sabarimala is nothing but a concrete jungle. “It is also seen that the Sabarimala Swami Ayyappa shrine located in the centre of evergreen forests initially had only one main structure and the temple was surrounded by greenery. The location of the temple site at Sannidhanam today has become a concrete jungle occupying around 63.5 acres of land while a large area over and above this has been occupied illegally,” it said in the report.The committee observed that the concrete jungle around Sabarimala shrine absorbs/traps heat during the day and releases it during night, thereby seriously impacting the micro-climate within the open forests as well as the adjoining forest landscape. “The concrete jungle has not done anything good to visiting pilgrims either. Open spaces which are required for free movement and resting of pilgrims have now been covered with buildings, sheds and other structures. Non-availability of open space at Sannidhanam complex forces pilgrims to spill over in large numbers into the surrounding forest land, especially during the peak pilgrim season and which causes irreversible damage to the regeneration of evergreen forests,” the report said.

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