Organisers enlighten people on the need for protecting the Ghats A signature campaign organised by the Save Western Ghats Movement, as a prelude to its Ecological Festival of Western Ghats, received good response from the citizens in Coimbatore on Sunday. Around 2,000 people took part in the campaign at Race Course and majority of them were morning walkers and joggers, the organisers said. Apart from signatures, the organisers also collected comments from the public and responded to queries on the need for protecting the Western Ghats. K. Syed from Osai, an NGO, said that the volunteers at the campaign enlightened the public on the need for protecting the Western Ghats. “We are all users of water. This is one of the simplest reasons why the Western Ghats should be protected,” said Mr. Syed. The Movement’s ‘Ecological Festival of Western Ghats’ will be held from February 1 to 3 at Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology, Kuniyamuthur. The international conference will witness a congregation of environmental activists, organisations, researchers and scholars, wildlife activists, photographers, students, artists, social activists and farmers working for the protection and conservation of the Western Ghats ecosystems and other ecosystems in India. It will revisit and highlight the present status of the Western Ghats with reference to the reports of High Level Working Group (HLWG) on Western Ghats, also known as Kasturirangan Commission, and Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), also known as the Gadgil Commission.