Battle ski project, replicate Chipko in Manali: Bahuguna

Advocating the need for formulating a strategy to fight the company, Bahuguna said the multinationals had been squeezing the natural resources of the country and depriving the people of the nation of their right to earn a respectable livelihood from it.

8220;People have the right to use water resources, forests and land for their livelihood and their rights cannot be transferred to a company promoted by Alfred Ford,8221; Bahuguna warned.

He said the people should put pressure on the Himachal Pradesh Government and the Union Government to scrap the project, adding that he would take up the issue with various environmental groups in the US to highlight how a company promoted by an American was harming natural resources in

India.

Earlier, a large gathering of people held a protest march, with Bahuguna spearheading them in an open Gypsy, through Naggar, Chakki, Haripur, Karjan, Khaknal, Jagatsukh, Prini and Aleo villages before reaching Manali town.

On their way, the protesters raised slogans against the proposed Himalayan Ski Village project, while many foreign visitors watched the protesters with curiosity.

Bahuguna said women had been a big support to the eight-year-long Chipko Movement and a similar model could be replicated in Manali. He said the Government should work out a sustainable model of development in the Himalayan region and focus on growing non-perishable fruit trees. They would give them economic sustainability, he added.

Attacking the government for setting up mega hydel and tourism projects, he said the state required a 8220;micro hydro-power generation revolution8221;.

Rajagopal PV, chairperson, Ekta Parishad, an organisation that launched the movement for upholding the land rights of tribals in Madhya Pradesh, said there was a middle path for fighting for the rights.

8220;We have to choose between silence and violence to fight for our rights,8221; he said, adding that Ekta Parishad supported people8217;s action against the Ski Village Project.

He also urged the people of Himachal Pradesh to participate in Janadesh 2007, a march by about 25,000 landless poor people from Gwalior, starting October 2.

Kulbhushan Upmanyu, president of Himalayan Policy Campaign, said the environmentalists opposing the Himalayan Ski Village Project and other mega projects in the state believed that they would pose a threat to the environment and local ecology.