ESA in Kerala may be 9,839 sq km

T. Nandakumar,  Thiruvananthapuram,  
The Hindu, September 5, 2015

A four-member delegation led by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy met Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar in New Delhi on Friday to clarify the demarcation of ESAs (Ecologically Sensitive Areas) in Kerala.

The delegation, which included Environment Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary, Environment, Mara Pandian, and Chairman of the Kerala State Biodiversity Board Oommen V. Oommen, handed over the explanatory note and maps sought by the Ministry.

Mr.Radhakrishnan told The Hindu over the phone from New Delhi that the clarifications provided by the State had been approved by the Ministry. The delegation handed over Kerala’s shapefile (a GIS data format), geographic coordinates of the ESAs, and a note explaining the fragmentation of ESAs in the State.

Mr. Radhakrishnan said Kerala succeeded in convincing the Union Ministry that the high population density in the State justified the exclusion of human settlements, farmlands, and plantations from the ESAs. “The Ministry has indicated that our stand is acceptable. Accordingly, the ESA area in Kerala will be revised to 9,839 sq km.”

The Kasturirangan committee on the protection of the Western Ghats had earmarked 123 villages spread over 13,108 sq km in Kerala as ESA. Following widespread protests by villagers in the high ranges in Kerala, the State government carried out a ground level verification to exclude settlements and plantations from the ESAs. In March 2014, the MoEF issued a draft notification revising the extent of ESAs to 9,993 sq km in 123 villages.

With the government later adopting the stance that only protected forests would be considered as ESA, four villages in Kottayam district were dropped from the ESA list. “Now that the Ministry has accepted our clarifications, the final notification to be issued shortly is expected to revise the extent of ESAs in Kerala to 9,839 sq km,” Mr.Radhakrishnan said.

The delegation also highlighted Kerala’s concerns over the CRZ notification, 2011, and its impact on housing and infrastructure development in the coastal areas.

An expert committee appointed by the Centre to look into Kerala’s plea for revising the CRZ norms had submitted its report last year. “We expect a positive response to our demand to relax the norms,” Mr. Radhakrishnan said.

He added that Mr. Javadekar had promised to provide financial assistance to reduce the man-animal conflict in the buffer zones around forests in Kerala.