The Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution seeking a review of the Kasturirangan report on ecologically sensitive areas in the Western Ghats, and sought one year to conduct a physical survey before the final notification is issued.
The state has also objected to the proposal that an entire village could be brought within the ESA if one-fifth of its area falls under forest limits. Bagar Hukum claims (applications to regularise cultivation on government land), forest rights, deemed forests (land with the characteristics of forest that has not been formally notified as forest), land grants, appeals and cases before courts remain unresolved in several parts of the Western Ghats. “We are not disrespecting the recommendations made by the Kasturirangan committee regarding ecologically sensitive areas of Western Ghats.
As a result, the government says, the proposed zone could take in agricultural and horticultural land, plantations, houses and public amenities along with forest areas, which it says could create difficulties for construction, division of family property and inheritance.
The state assembly has called this method unscientific and said it has caused discontent among residents. The state also says that the boundary exercise cannot be separated from thousands of existing disputes over land. The state government says it is not rejecting ecological protection.
The state wants these matters considered before the final boundaries are fixed. Instead, we are requesting they be scientifically revised, keeping the interests of our state in mind,” chief minister DK Shivakumar said on Wednesday.
Karnataka’s opposition is centred on questions about where the boundary of ecological protection should be drawn, and what happens to the people living within it. State governments opposed the recommendations. The Centre then appointed a high-level working group headed by K Kasturirangan, former chairperson of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), for another proposal. The Union environment ministry receives comments, objections and suggestions on each draft and forwards them to the state governments.
A draft lapses 725 days after it is issued. The first was issued on March 10, 2014, and the six drafts before the latest all expired as the states differed over the final area to be demarcated and the restrictions on development. Since 2022, an expert committee constituted by the ministry has been examining the states’ suggestions before the notification is finalised.
The state says the proposal risks bringing farms, plantations, homes and public facilities into the ESA without first establishing their exact location through ground surveys.
