The Assembly Committee on environment has recommended the demolishing of buildings that violate environmental regulations in Munnar.

It has also mooted that the hill station be split into separate zones with building rules for each of them, while making the suggestion that applying the same building rules across the state was unscientific. Revenue officers, apart from razing structures, will be asked to stop the construction of commercial buildings going beyond a specified height.

The recommendations have been included in the committee’s first report submitted before the Assembly on Monday, reports The New Indian Express. Another recommendation to the government is to evolve a mechanism for disposing the waste that will be generated by the demolition of buildings in the hill station. The recommendations also include the creation of an environment and development authority to draft special building rules for Munnar in six months after stopping all construction.

“Land shouldn’t be assigned for dangerous non-housing constructions hereafter. The building erected beyond permissible height should be immediately demolished. Title deeds should be canceled if any violation of conditions was found in land use,” the report says. The Committee also mooted that green protocol should be followed in the publicity initiatives for tourism in the region.

These initiatives should be subjected to social audit by environmental activists and research students. “Penalties for vehicular pollution in Munnar should be stringent, the report says.

It also recommended immediate ban on planting of eucalyptus trees in the region. V S Achuthanandan had formed a three-member team and demolished some of the illegal constructions in Munnar when he was the chief minister in 2007.