The Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala is feeling the heat of protests mushrooming on the high ranges in the state over the proposed one-kilometre ‘buffer zones’ or eco-sensitive zone around all protected forests. A lot of these high-range areas in the state are populated by migrant farmers who belong to the Catholic faith. So, the powerful Catholic bishops are at the forefront of the protests to protect their herd. To cool down the church, state ministers Roshy Augustine and Antony Raju on Tuesday met Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference president Cardinal Baselios Cleemis of Malankara Catholic Church to explain the government's stance on the issue.
The issue
On June 3, the Supreme Court made a crucial verdict about the protection of wildlife in the country. In response to a petition to protect forest lands in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris district, a three-member bench of the apex court directed that every national park and wildlife sanctuary in the country required to have an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of at least one kilometre starting from its demarcated boundaries. The court, however, was not adamant to implement the requirement of a 1km buffer zone. The order says that the minimum width of the eco-sensitive zone may be diluted in the overwhelming public interest but for that purpose, the state or Union Territory concerned shall approach the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and both these bodies shall give their respective opinions/recommendations before the court.
Ever since then, the farmer groups like Kerala Independent Farmers Association (KIFA) and Infam (Indian Farmers' Movement) and church leaders have been asking the state government to take necessary steps to protect the vast population living close to forests. They argue that the southern state’s case is different from many other states in the country and that the government should ask for exemptions from the court while implementing its order. According to the India State of Forest Report 2021, Kerala’s recorded forest area is 9,679 square kilometres—which accounts for 24.91 per cent of Kerala’s geographical area. Also, the state’s tree cover is 21,253 sq km, which accounts for 54.7 per cent of its total geographical area. India’s total tree cover is just 24.62 per cent and its total forest cover is just 21.71 per cent of its total geographical area. The Union government’s forest policy is targeting to bring 33 per cent of the country’s geographical area under forest and tree cover. The farmers argue that Kerala already has achieved this target. They also argue that only 3,300 square kilometre area of the 9,679 sq km recorded forests comes under wildlife sanctuaries or national parks in the state. The state currently has 22 protected areas. The protesters demand that the proposed buffer zone be shifted to the boundary of the recorded forest. They say that the government does not have any right to declare the revenue land for which they have title deeds as buffer zones for the forest.
State government’s actions
While giving the June 3 verdict, the Supreme Court had directed the principal chief conservators of forest in states to submit a report on subsisting structures within the proposed buffer around wildlife sanctuaries and national parks within a timespan of three months. Accordingly, the Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre did a satellite survey to mark the area under the buffer zone. The satellite survey report was submitted to the forest department by KSREC on August 29. However, the state formed a five-member expert committee under former Supreme Court Judge Thottathil Radhakrishnan to study the buffer zone only on September 28. On August 18, Kerala became the first state to file a review petition against the June 3 order. The state cited the land area limitation in Kerala as against other states and also pointed out that a common criterion for all states will not be fair while fixing the buffer zone.
The expert committee under Justice Radhakrishnan was supposed to clean up the preliminary report. However, the committee published the reports without any change to the preliminary report filed by the KSREC. That, too, two and a half months later on December 13.
Critics of the government say that the maps do not mark the rivers, roads and ward divisions in a clear way which is easily understandable to people. They also say that the maps are faulty. The satellite report identified about 14,619 structures. But the protest groups say that the actual numbers are a lot more than this.
Bishop Mar Remigiose Maria Paul Inchananiyil, a Catholic bishop and a leading critic of the government on the issue, even alleged that there is some sort of conspiracy behind the faulty maps.
“We have asked multiple times to publish the satellite map of the buffer zone prepared by the government. However, the government delayed the entire process. If the government had any responsibility to the people of the state, they should not have done this,” Bishop Inchananiyil told THE WEEK.
“The expert committee was formed for mapping the structures close to the forest and fixing the borders. However, the expert committee did not make any consultation with anybody living close to the forest areas. Justice Thottathil Radhakrishnan did not consult anybody from our area. How could they make decisions without any consultation with people who are affected by their decisions? Supreme Court permitted a satellite survey. But a technologically incapable group did the survey. There are many advanced technologies and capable agencies to do such a process. But the government decided that just a namesake survey is required,” he said.
The bishop added that it was only after their protests that the government decided to give time to the complaints of people on the survey report. “But the government said people should file their complaints within 10 days. These are all poor farmers who are living in all these areas. A lot of them do not have the computer or technological prowess to file complaints. Also, if they have to understand the map and get to know the details from someone, are just 10 days enough?,” he asked. “Those making this sort of unpractical orders have no common sense or any sense about farmers. All these are reasons to doubt that there is some sort of conspiracy going on behind all these. I do not know what exactly is happening, but I believe that there is some sort of game happening behind the curtains.”
Government’s latest decisions
On December 18, state forest minister A.K. Saseendran admitted that there are faults in the satellite survey maps and that the state government will not be submitting it in the current form in the Supreme Court. After visiting Cardinal Cleemis on December 20, minister Augustine said that the Left Democratic Front government’s intention is to limit the buffer zone within the forests.
Meanwhile, the chief minister convened a high-level meeting on Tuesday to discuss the matter. The meeting was attended by state ministers of revenue, forest, finance and local self-government institutions and respective top officials of those departments. The high-level meeting decided that the expert committee’s term will be increased by two months.
The government will publish the map of ECZ that has been submitted for the Union government's sanction. If anybody wants to include additional information on this, the government will allow it. People can submit these additions via panchayat secretaries or directly to the forest department. These additions and complaints can be raised till January 7.
A team of officials from revenue department, forest department and local self government department will do field visits to confirm these additions. The government will also consider collecting information from groups that include people's representatives.
An online meeting of the ministers of revenue, local self government and forest departments and 87 panchayat presidents, secretaries, village officers, tehsildars and forest officers will be held tomorrow to decide on the field verification process.