James Cameron and Lavasa City

Lavasa is a private city being built in the Western Ghats, between Pune and Mumbai.

All the problems around it have been well documented, and below are a few articles.

1. Howl of the hills – Down to Earth
2. The great urban juggernaut – New Internationalist
3. City without Soul – Tehelka
4. Lavasa corp: Intercepted, protesters register complaint – The Indian Express
5. Medha Patkar, Bhai Vaidya seek CBI probe into Lavasa township plan – The Indian Express
6. The hills are alive with the sound of controversy – Business Standard
7. Oxford dragged into ‘land-grab’ scam – The Hindu
8. PIL against state, Lavasa for green nod to township project – The Indian Express

We recently found out that James Cameron is coming to Lavasa for a INK/TED conference, and are trying to stop him from doing so, given his track record of supporting environmental concerns and indigenous people’s rights.

We sent him a public letter on the 24th of November, which was also posted on the New Internationalist Blog.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests has also issued Lavasa Corporation a Show Cause Notice on the 25th of November for its violations under section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Unless the company is able to prove it has not violated the Act, all construction from 2004 onwards will be demolished in entirety.

Please sign the petition asking him not to visit Lavasa.