Western Ghats: Ecologically Sensitive Areas maps to be digitised

T. Nandakumar
Thiruvananthapuram,  
The Hindu, August 31, 2014 

With the Central government informing the National Green Tribunal of its intention to implement the report of the K. Kasturirangan committee on the Western Ghats, the Kerala government is gearing up for the final phase of the exercise to demarcate Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESAs) in the State.

The Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre (KSREC) has got down to the task of preparing digitised maps showing the extent of the redefined ESAs in the 123 villages identified by the High Level Working Group (HLWG) led by Dr. Kasturirangan. Paucity of funds, however, threatens to bog down the project.

The Environment Department has reportedly turned down a request from the KSREC for an assistance of Rs.14 lakh to cover the expenses involved in the preparation of the cadastral maps earlier this year. The Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre KSREC, an entity under the Planning Department, has been asked to mobilise funds from its own kitty.

Following a draft notification issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in March, the KSREC had prepared cadastral maps redefining the boundaries of the ESAs.

Colour-coded maps

The colour-coded maps demarcating forests, residential areas, waterbodies, and rocks were scanned, electronically stitched, and uploaded onto the website of the Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB).

“The cadastral maps are only scanned sheets with field-level data copied onto survey maps. They need to be digitised and converted to the GIS (Geographic Information System) format to enable calculation of the area, based on survey number,” a scientist associated with the mapping project said. KSBB Chairman Oommen V. Oommen said that the MoEF had directed the State government to prepare a report on the cadastral-level maps.

This report would be uploaded onto the Ministry’s website along with the final notification expected to be published by mid-2015.

A team of officials from the MoEF regional office at Bangalore were expected to visit the State next month for a ‘random sampling ground truthing’ of the redefined ESAs. The team, which held a preliminary meeting with State officials here in June, was expected to carry out field verification in at least 25 per cent of the 123 villages.