Thiruvananthapuram | The Kerala government has been devising and implementing various schemes to prevent land degradation and preserve the environmental balance in the state, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday on the occasion of World Environment Day.

In a Facebook post, Vijayan said this year's message on World Environment Day is to prevent land degradation and increase soil fertility.

He claimed that as part of the neoliberal economic order, land grabbing, illegal encroachments by private capitalistic forces to serve their self interests and climate change were leading to large-scale degradation of the land.

Vijayan said that the degradation of land can be prevented only through extensive planning and interventions in policy formulation and implementation.

"It requires public participation also. The LDF government in Kerala has been devising and implementing various schemes for this purpose," he said.

Giving examples of steps taken by the government, the CM said that interventions were made under the Haritha Kerala Mission to facilitate the flow of rivers, harvest rainwater and collect garbage.

"It is only by strengthening these efforts that our environmental balance can be ensured. For this, the people of Kerala need to move forward together and defend our environment from the greedy encroachments of monopoly capitalists and maintain a more balanced ecosystem," he said in his social media post.

The CM also planted a sapling at Cliff House, his official residence, on the occasion.