Thiruvananthapuram: The proposed SilverLine high-speed rail project, once implemented, will cause huge environmental disasters, environmental scientist Prof Madhav Gadgil said.
He was inaugurating the webinar organised by the Kerala Sustainable Development Forum.
He said the reason for landslides like the one that occurred in Koottikkal was illegal mining carried out every now and then in the name of development.
He lamented that the country, which does not have money for giving wages to employees under the national rural employment guarantee scheme, has abundant money for building rail lines and national highways by destroying the ecology.
Sustainable Development Forum president George Sebastine was the moderator at the webinar. Dr RVG Menon, M.G.Radhakrishnan, PN Vijayakumar, Dr MG Sasibhooshan and M.P.Baburaj spoke on the occasion.
