Environmentalists, farmers divided over notifiction

Environmentalists and farmers in the five southern districts of Tamil Nadu are divided over the recent notification by Union Environment Ministry's notification to turn approximately 60,000 sq kms of Western Ghats across six states into Ecologically Sensitive Area.
While Forest Department officials, botanists and wildlife lovers welcomed it maintaining it would enable people get natural spices that had more medicinal powers, and help the tribal population, plantation owners feared about the impact of the ESA on spices cultivating estates.
According to A C Arumugam, who owned estates, ESA would help to protect the estates that were formed long ago without affecting the forest environment. Now new estates were coming up and they should be prevented. Wild animals, especially elephants barged into only new estates as were formed near the forests.

However, cardamom growers of Theni, hotel and cottage owners in Thekkady were apprehensive about the notification besides Left parties in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Representatives of estate owners and farmer said catchment areas had been allegedly encroached by powerful politicians, who opposed increasing the Mullaiperiyar dam level.
Prevention of cottages in the protected areas would bring more rains, increase the dam level, protect the wild lives and forests also, Sakthi Velu, a farmer said.

Mines, quarries, thermal power plants and polluting industries were banned in the entire ESA as per the notification. Other projects would be allowed only with the consent of the gram sabhas in the zone, he said.

According to a study, human impacts have locally caused irreversible changes in the structure of biological communities and their natural habitats, he said.
Cardamom growers association leaders said dense cardamom estates in as Udumbanchola, Peermedu and Devikulam had come under the red zone under the notification. If cardamom activities were stopped here, the estate workers would loose jobs, they said.
But the environmentalists counter this saying tribals would get more employment if the forests were protected.
A rough survey would reveal a lot of land had been encroached in Mullaiperiyar dam catchment areas, an official of the dam said.