Moodbidire: ‘If existing lakes are desilted and surrounding areas are covered with vegetation , all the lakes, ponds, streams and water bodies can be brought back to life’’, said MLA J R Lobo.

He was speaking after inaugurating the ‘’YUVA Lake-2016 Conference’’, on the second day of the three day International Lake-2016 Conference, on Thursday, at Alva’s College, Moodabidri.

Mr Lobo added and said, ‘if existing lake can’t retain water, what is the guarantee of new Lakes can perpetuate water? So it is advisable to go for extensive desilting process of Lakes rather than thinking of new one. Explaining the Pilikula project for conservation of Western Ghats, the legislator said, this is the unique project focusing on recreating and preserving flora and fauna, endangered species of Western Ghats. He termed this project as one of the unique project not only in India but also in the world’. He urged to follow the traditional methods of water bodies like ‘’Madaka’’, ‘’Katta’’, which are inseparable part of agricultural fraternity. ‘We are systematically destroying our mother nature, till now we fought world war for extension of our territory, to protect our trade and commerce , but hereafter future wars will be on water, he cautioned’. He added and said, our ancestors given us beautiful nature, but we are not in position to pass the same legacy to our future generation.

Dr. T.V Ramachandra, CES, IISc Bangaluru said, ‘Today is the era of briefcases, where government projects are contractor and consultancy driven, and decision makers can’t make money with our low cost projects. So they easily deny our suggestions’. Speaking about Yettinahole project, he said, we had given detail report to the government saying, ‘based on the rainfall data of 100 years in Yetthinahole catchment area, this project is economically inviolable and disastrous. It is having only 9.5 TMC of water, in which 6 TMC is used for peasants and 2 TMC for fishery and only 0.85 TMC is available for usage. He ridiculed this project and said, ‘Kolar people can get oxygen from Western ghat through laid pipe line, but not the water’. Since people are distress in Kolar region, politician easily making them fool, he added.

In his presidential remarks Alva’s Education Foundation Managing Trustee Vivek Alva asked the most sublime rhetorical question, has age got anything to do with youth? He added and said, ‘In today’s youth, there is a trend of lightness, dilution and superficialness and this could be a potential threat to the country if the responsibility is not understood. He stated that the Western Ghats is the asset of the entire world and its conservation should be a movement. He said, change will surely happen when education is not just limited to needs and means. He ended his remark by saying, all schools could be like universities and all universities could think like schools’.

M.D Subhashchandra, MA Khan, Bharath H Aithal and Harish Bhat were felicitated for their contribution towards preserving environment.

In the first technical session on ‘Wetlands and their ecosystem services: Experiences from North’, Timo Huttula from Finland said, Finnish Environment Institute works on the different aspects of environment such as marine research, sustainable construction and production ,freshwater management etc. He explained the concept of ecosystem and wetland and evaluated the studies and training related to construction of wetlands in Finland. “Construction of wetlands is one of the most popular water protection measures in Finland” he said. Speaking on ‘’Oxygen Depletion in Stratified Lakes- Why shallow and deep lakes react differently? Alfred Wuest of Switzerland said, the decision to clean up lakes has led to 90% success in Switzerland. In the last forty years enormous activities in clean up of the lakes in Switzerland were carried out by the Hydro Biological Laboratory, Kastanienbaum.

Researchers Timo Huttula, Alfred Wuest, Former Minister K Amarnath Shetty, Environment Research Foundation Bengaluru Prof Rajshekar Murthy, KK English Medium School, Principal Uma Mohan, Alva’s college Principal Prof Kurian, Lake Conference -2016 Co-ordinator Dr Rajesh were present among others.