Unesco tag: State digs its heels in

Says Union Forest Ministry can’t impose heritage tag on Western Ghats against govt’s wish

With barely 20 days left for India to resubmit its dossier to Unesco World Heritage Committee (WHC) for the serial nomination of the Western Ghats, Karnataka, as in the previous year, isn’t making the task any easier for the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).

The State government is accusing the MoEF of being “non-transparent” and “obstinate” over nominating 10 sites in Karnataka for the heritage tag, despite the BJP government’s strong opposition to it.

The MoEF — which did make efforts to coax Karnataka into extending its co-operation to nominate the Ghats for the heritage tag — has now decided to take the matter into its own hands and further the process of submitting its proposal for the inscription of the Ghats in the upcoming Unesco convention to be held in St Petersburg, Russian Federation, from June 25 to July 6.

The MoEF is taking Karnataka’s “silence” over the issue in its stride. A top official said that during the meeting held by the Western Ghats Heritage Panel of the MoEF in Bangalore last September, the Chief Wildlife Wardens (CWW) of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala were apprised of the renomination process.

The panel had suggested that a three-tier overarching mounting mechanism be set up, so that in the event the Ghats bags the heritage tag, then the panel has a structure in place to monitor and co-ordinate activities in the 39 sites.

The mechanism will have committees set up at the Central, State and the local level. While the Central committee will comprise the Additional Director General of Forests (Wildlife), CWWs and two members of the civil society, the State committee will have the state forest department officials, wildlife experts and civil society members. The local committee will have local leaders and representatives of the civil society. MoEF officials said that after the Bangalore meeting, a draft of the proposal was sent to all the six state governments/CWWs.

Officials said none of the states, including Karnataka, had sent their responses so far. The ministry is, however, taking this as a positive sign and moving forward with its dossier submission to the WHC.

Officials also said efforts were made to hold meetings between the Karnataka forest minister and Union minister for Environment and Forest after the September meet in Bangalore. However, Karnataka showed no signs of warming to the idea.

Karnataka irked

When asked about the MoEF’s new strategy, Kaushik Mukherjee, Principal Secretary, Forests, said, “Karnataka has said time and again that it did not want the ten sites to be nominated for the heritage status. We think there are suitable Acts already in place to ensure protection of the Ghats. The government at large is not in favour of the nomination.”

“They (MoEF) can’t impose any stricture on the state governments. If they declare the Western Ghats a world heritage site and impose the tag, this is will be in spite of us saying ‘no’. This also means they are being non-transparent in their methods,” he added.

Mukherjee said there was no communication gap between the State government and the MoEF. “How many times should Karnataka communicate with the MoEF on this matter? Yes, at one point, the Forest Department had made a recommendation to inscribe the Western Ghats in Unesco’s World Heritage Committee, but that has now been withdrawn,” he said.

Background

India, which had nominated 39 sites in the Ghats spread across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, to the WHC aiming for the heritage tag, had returned disappointed from the 35th session held in Paris, France. The nomination was “deferred”.

The 39 natural sites are in national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, tiger reserves and reserved forests in Karnataka (10); Kerala (19); Tamil Nadu (6); and Maharashtra (4).

Status report

* MoEF decides to nominate Western Ghats for Unesco tag.
* Proposal to be submitted at the Unesco convention commencing on June 25 at St Petersburg.
* State government reiterates its opposition to the heritage status.
* Three-tier mechanism mooted to monitor 39 sites.