The Centre, on Monday, assured a delegation led by Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai that the draft notification declaring the extent of ecologically sensitive areas (ESAs) in the Western Ghats will not be implemented until a high-powered committee conducts a physical survey of the villages that are likely to be affected.
A high-powered committee headed by retired IFS officer Sanjay Kumar has been constituted to conduct physical survey and submit a detailed report in a year’s time. Bommai had stated that the Kasturirangan report was “unscientific”.
"We have made the state's stand clear on the Kasturirangan report. All the states had opposed the earlier Madhav Gadgil report. Then came the Kasturirangan report, which was prepared without seeking opinion of local people, gram panchayats and taluk panchayats, or any ground survey. It relied only on satellite imagery to identify the green areas to declare them as eco-sensitive areas. The life of people in the Malnad region is intertwined with nature, and the landscape is covered in not just forest, but coffee, areca, coconut and rubber plantations. Only a thorough survey will give a clear picture,” said Bommai, who had led a delegation comprising elected repesentatives from Malnad region, including Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje, BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel, BJP national general secretary C.T. Ravi, Mysuru MP Pratap Simha, and state ministers Govind Karjol and Araga Jnanendra.
The draft notification was based on the Dr Kasturirangan Committee report that proposed that 37 per cent of the total areas of Western Ghats should be declared as ESA. Accordingly, a total of 46,832 sqkm (including 20,668 sq km in Karnataka) was declared as ESA across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The high-powered committee will examine the suggestions of the state governments considering the fragility of the area, in the context of the recent disasters. It will also hold discussions with all the stakeholders in the six states and deliberate on whether the village should be treated as a unit to demarcate the eco-sensitive zones.
