Western Ghats: five States yet to submit reports

Divya Gandhi
Bangalore

The Hindu, August 7, 2014 

The six Western Ghats States have just two days to meet the August 9 deadline to submit their “ground-truthing” reports on Eco Sensitive Areas (ESA).

However, barring Kerala, none of the States has responded to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), which, according to some environmentalists, betrays more than just bureaucratic inefficiency.

MoEF letter

The MoEF letter was sent out two months ago asking States to corroborate at the village-level, the findings of the Kasturirangan committee report (which had relied largely on satellite imagery).

The Kasturirangan report last year had identified 59,940 sq.km (37 p.c.) of the Western Ghats as ESA: regions where activities such as mining and thermal plants should be banned.

Not formed panels

Karnataka, which has the largest share of the Western Ghats identified as ESA, has not even formed the committees that will conduct surveys at district-level, according to sources in the State’s Environment Department.

As for Goa, the Chief Minister has written to the MoEF asking for more time citing the “rainy season” for their inability to conduct the exercise, said Joint Secretary MoEF, Ajay Tyagi.

Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have not yet submitted their reports, he added.

According to environmentalist Madhav Gadgil, “States are deliberately avoiding the exercise of ground-truthing because it will not serve vested interests.”

Prof. Gadgil chaired the expert panel that authored the 2012 report on Western Ghats ESA, which the government rejected in favour of the Kasturirangan report in 2013. “This just makes it clear that vested interests dominate State governments as much as they do the Union government,” he alleged.

The concept of ESAs in the Western Ghats has been a contentious one. Kerala, for instance, had expressed its objections to the Kasturirangan committee recommendations that brought 13,108 sq.km under ESA. In its draft notification of March 10, MoEF reduced the geographical area of ESA in Kerala to 9,993.7 sq.km.

The draft notification identifies 56,825 sq.km as ESA in total, with Karnataka accounting for 20,668 sq.km.

In its response to the draft notification, Karnataka agreed to ban mining in ESA, but not quarrying or sand extraction as “a total ban will affect local development and livelihoods very adversely”. The State also called for a reduction in the extent of ESA.