The Ministry of Environment and Forests has notified that the Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) in Kerala is spread over an area of 9,993.7 sq km only. This includes 9,107 sq km of forest and 886.7 sq km of non-forest area.
Earlier, the high-level working group appointed by the ministry had identified 13,108 sq km as the ESA, which included 123 villages of the state that are densely populated. This created a huge public outcry in Kerala as special environmental sanction is needed for activities like construction in these areas.
The people in the High Range districts had started agitations, which sometimes turned violent, against the notification. It also became a political issue and at one point threatened the existence of the United Democratic Front (UDF) government.
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This is also one of the major issues in the election campaign in Kerala. The High Range Samrakshana Samithi (HRSS) has fielded a candidate in the Idukki constituency against the Congress nominee. The Opposition LDF is strongly backing the HRSS candidate.
The notification now identifies approximately 37 per cent of the Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive, which covers an area of 56,825 sq km only on a horizontal distance of 1,500 km. Earlier this was 59,940 sq km. This is spread across six states of the Western Ghats region namely,Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and includes protected areas and world heritage sites.
There is no change in the notified area of other affected states. Accordingly, Karnataka will have 20,668 sq km, Maharashtra 17,340 sq km,Tamil Nadu 6,914 sq km, Goa 1,461 sq km and Gujarat 449 sq km of ESA.
The fresh notification issued on March 10 largely agreed with the report submitted by the expert committee headed by Oommen V Oommen appointed by the Kerala government to study the Kasturirangan report.
The committee had undertaken an exercise of demarcating the ESA in the state by physical verification and to assess ground level information. It had also set up panchayat level committees in the 123 villages falling within the ESA.
The expert committee and the panchayat level committees have recommended exclusion of cultural landscape from the ESA as identified by the high-level working group. The state government is of the view that agricultural areas, orchards, horticultural plots, plantation and residential areas may be kept out of the ESA, the notification said.