KOCHI,
The Hindu, November 22, 2014
The State government is yet to decide on the proposed
amendments to the Kerala Forest (vesting and Management of Ecological
Fragile Land) Act 2003 even as the High Court of Kerala upheld its
constitutional validity on Monday.
It was in December
last that the State government initiated a move to provide small-time
farmers who missed the opportunity to question the notification within
the timeframe one more chance to challenge it. The amendments suggested
to the law are pending with the government, sources said.
Meanwhile, ecologists hailed the High Court verdict as a landmark one in the ecological conservation history of the State.
The
judgement will have a significant impact in protecting the ecology of
the State and drinking water sources, points out E. Kunhikrishnan, one
of the EFL campaigners. The order would help in protecting some of the
highly ecologically sensitive areas of the Western Ghats, says Prof.
Kunhikrishnan.
Notification
The
State government had notified nearly 14,300 hectares as EFL for the
“conservation and management of ecologically fragile lands, minimising
the reduction of degradation of the ecosystem, and biological
diversity.”
It was in December 2013 that the State
notified EFL last. That time, around 550 hectares spread in some
districts including Wayanad and Idukki was notified. No one has
challenged it as the deadline for appeal ended this June, the sources
say.
V.D. Satheesan, Congress legislator, feels that
the misuse of provisions of the Act and harassment of small farmers on
the pretext of enforcing the notification created reservations against
conservation in the State. The State government, while taking forward
the identification and notification of the ecologically sensitive land
in the wake of the court judgment, should also take steps for helping
small-time farmers whose holdings have been wrongly notified, he says.
Prof.
Kunhikrishnan, who was also involved in the verification of EFL
notifications in a few districts, suggests that relief be extended to
small-time farmers whose holdings have been wrongly notified by the
Forest Department. He also suggests that the State notify ecologically
sensitive land after paying compensation, as envisaged in Section 4 of
the Act.
At the same time, P.C. Cyriac, a member of
the Kerala government committee on the recommendations of the
Kasturirangan committee, sticks to his earlier controversial stand of
scrapping the Act.
The EFL Act was brought in with limited purposes. As the Act has served its purpose, it should be repealed, he demands.
