Karnataka has rejected the sixth draft notification of the Kasturirangan report that proposes the demarcation of eco-sensitive areas (ESA) in the ecologically fragile Western Ghats. The state cabinet has decided to reject the draft “in toto” citing opposition from the locals and the elected representatives from the 11 districts in the Western Ghats region in the state. Meanwhile, Kerala has submitted draft proposals for consideration by the Centre's expert committee to exclude residential areas from the ecologically sensitive areas.
Karnataka's Parliamentary Affairs minister H.K. Patil said that the state was rejecting the report after deliberations and it was consistent with their earlier stance.
Interestingly, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre had expressed their willingness to reconsider the panel’s recommendations in the wake of the devastating landslides in Shiroor (Uttara Kannada) and Wayanad in Kerala.
Khandre, who had chaired the cabinet sub-committee, was in favour of reducing the ESA limit from the proposed 20,668 sq km to 16,114 sq km.
“The Karnataka government has already notified and protected 16,632 sq km of forest land in the form of sanctuaries, national parks, and eco-sensitive zones. The remaining area has about 1,533 homes, villages, and other human dwelling units and we need to protect the rights and livelihood of people living here,” Khandre had said while indicating that the state cabinet would decide on a resurvey before implementing the Kasturirangan report.
“We must learn lessons from Wayanad and Shirur. The government will take a re-look at the report to prevent incidents of landslides. The Kasturirangan report identified 1,576 villages in ESA, the high-powered committee has pegged the number of villages at 1,490. A re-survey might be needed,” said Khandre, adding that the previous Bommai government too had opposed the fifth draft notification.
The sixth draft notification issued by the Centre on July 31 sought to declare over 56,800 sq km of the Western Ghats spread across six states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat, as ESA. The notification was issued shortly after the Wayanad landslide in Kerala, and after the National Green Tribunal, on July 29, 2024, directed the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to finalise a timeline to demarcate and declare the Western Ghats areas as ESAs.
Meanwhile, conservationists allege that the government could have averted landslides and floods by implementing the Kasturirangan report earlier. The people fear eviction from their homes. However, the report only restricts harmful industries, mining and activities that damage the environment.
Conservation is no longer a matter of choice but compulsion. But the subsequent governments have failed to recognise the urgency of implementing the report despite a spate of disasters like floods and landslides in the region.
First, it was the UPA government which constituted the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) headed by ecologist Madhav Gadgil in 2010, to study the impact of population pressure, climate change and development activities in Western Ghats.
But after WGEEP submitted its report in August 2011 (made public only in May 2012), it was forgotten, as states dubbed it as ‘anti-development’.
Soon, MoEF constituted another high-level working group (on August 17, 2012) headed by space scientist Dr K. Kasturirangan to “revisit” the WGEEP report.
While, the Gadgil report had declared the entire Western Ghats region (1.64 lakh sq km) as ecologically sensitive, further grading it as ecologically sensitive zones – ESZ I, II and III, based on their fragility, the Kasturirangan report proposed demarcation of the region only as “natural” landscape (37%) and the remaining 63% as “cultural” landscape (owing to human settlements and agricultural fields).
The natural landscape was declared as a “no-development” zone, and a total of 4,156 villages – Goa (99), Gujarat (64), Karnataka (1576), Kerala (123) Maharashtra (2,159) and Tamil Nadu (135) were declared as ESA villages.
The Karnataka government had agreed to notify only 153 out of 1,553 villages and stated such “antagonism” would only “defeat” the conservation efforts. In its reply (dated April 24, 2015), the state government mentioned “public outrage” as the reason for dropping the villages from the ESA list.
Kerala seeks exclusion of residential areas
Kerala’s draft proposals for excluding residential areas and denoting only forest areas under the ecologically sensitive areas have been submitted for consideration by the Centre's expert committee.
The high-level working group (HLWG) under the chairmanship of Kasturirangan had identified a 13,108 square kilometre area—which is the total area of 123 villages in Kerala—to be put under the ESA.
In December 2013, the centre sought suggestions from the state governments on modifications in the boundary of the ESA as identified by the HLWG on the basis of physical verification. A three-member committee formed by the Kerala government under the leadership of Oommen V. Oommen identified 9993.7 sq. km of 123 villages as an eco-sensitive area of Kerala. Out of which 9107 sq. km. was identified as forest area and the remaining 886.7 sq. km as non-forest area.
The Union Ministry of Forests and Environment accepted this recommendation and listed 9993.7 sq. km as the ESA of Kerala in the first draft ESA notification of 2014. In the latest draft notification also, 9993.7 sq km is the area put under ESAs, though the number of ESA villages has risen from 123 to 131. This was because some of these villages were divided.
After detailed discussions, the state government decided in 2018 to recommend ESA only for protected forest areas and reserve forests, excluding inhabited areas, plantations, water bodies and isolated forest areas. Subsequently, Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Center submitted the report identifying 8656.46 sq. in 92 villages.
Later, at the district level, monitoring committees conducted inspections and the extent of ESA was fixed as 8,711.89 sq km in 98 villages. The Kerala CMO recently said that the Union government was alerted that the final report would be submitted after incorporating the changes.
The sixth draft notification was released by the Union government just a day after the Wayanad landslides. The Kerala government has plans to bring the landslide-prone areas of Wayanad under the ESAs. According to the draft notification, 13 villages in Wayanad are identified to fall under the ecologically sensitive area.
According to the draft notification, all new and expansion projects of building and construction with a built-up area of 20,000 square metres and above and all new and expansion townships and area development projects with an area of 50 hectares and above or with a built-up area of 1,50,000 square metres and above shall be prohibited in the Eco-sensitive Area.
Kottappadi, a village identified for building a township to rehabilitate the landslide victims, is one of the 13 ESA villages in the draft notification.
Meanwhile, there is a petition in the Kerala High Court challenging the draft notification issued to include 131 villages from Kerala in the environmentally sensitive zone. The HC has sought an explanation from the central government, and the case will be considered on October 4.
