Wooda

If the economy continues to prosper, the demand in land in urban areas will increase, and it will result in encroachment on agricultural lands in the urban fringes, and so its value and prices are likely to rise phenomenally in the long run. However, the real issue here is neither how to contain urban growth within the old city limits, nor how to internalize the external diseconomies, which accompany urban growth. The key question is as to who should pay the attendant environment costs and how to keep the urban sprawl under control. Due to the spiraling demand for apartments and Homes Kerala and its resurgent middle class is now increasingly doing away with its low-lying wetlands. The problems with the urban sprawl and other related issues can be checked by the government through a package of tax-cum-subsidy measures aimed at changing the relative attractiveness of the farther areas in the fringe areas vis-à-vis the nearer areas (including the city area) for the potential buyers. Many of the municipalities and local bodies in Kerala have been talking about certain stringent policies but few of them have actually taken steps in this regard. Making the conversion of wetlands progressively expensive beyond a point could make land farther off less attractive. A conversion tax could be levied at a rate, high enough to offset the advantage of buying cheaper land. The rate of conversion tax could be made progressive with increase in distance from the periphery. However, if the low land price were completely siphoned off through conversion tax, then there would be no incentive for the urban expansion into the fringe areas. Analysts point out that due to the changed perspective of the common people, they do not mind issues that affect the environment any more. Thus converting paddy fields and other wetlands is continuing unabated. The government is now attempting to change this attitude at least in the younger generation right from the school level through a change in the curriculum.