3,000 km fragile land in Kerala exempted from ESA
Over 3,000 sq km environmentally fragile land in Kerala’s Western Ghats region has been exempted by Environment Ministry from the category of Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESAs) demarcated by a high-level central government panel. Earlier, High Level Working Group on Western Ghats headed by K Kasturirangan had recommended that 13,108 sq km should be declared as ESAs. However, the ministry was requested by the government to take off habitations, plantations and agricultural areas in the state’s 123 villages falling within the Western Ghat eco-sensitive area. The ministry prepared a fresh draft notification on Western Ghats. According to the draft — the Eco-Sensitive Area in the state of Kerala is spread over of an area of 9993.7 sq km, which includes 9107 sq km of forest area and 886.7 sq km of non-forest area.
The state government had set up an expert committee set up by Kerala government to examine the Kasturirangan panel report. Removal of 3,000 sq km environmentally significant areas from the category of ESAs demarcated by the Kasturirangan committee report had been recommended by the state government panel. The committee recommendations were that agricultural lands, plantations and habitations should be kept out of the ESAs.
Among the six affected states, the Kasturirangan committee report has become a contentious issue.
Source: Business Line
Committee, Ecologically Sensitive Areas, Ecologically Sensitive Areas Kerala, Environment, esa, forest, habitations, Kasturirangan, Kasturirangan committee, Kasturirangan report, Kerala, Kerala Ecologically Sensitive Areas, plantations, Western Ghats
