Centre awaits states' opinion on Western Ghats report
The Centre is yet to take action on a high-level panel's report on ecologically-sensitive Western Ghats as many of the concerned states, mostly ruled by Congress, have failed to submit their opinion to the Environment Ministry.
The Ministry had sought the opinion of all concerned states including Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Maharashtra on the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel.
Except BJP-ruled Karnataka, none of them have responded to the Centre's query on the report prepared by the Committee headed by eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil. The report was submitted to the Ministry four months ago.
While Congress is in power in Kerala, Goa and Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu is governed by AIADMK.
Sources said these states have not responded to the Environment Ministry despite sending three reminders in the last three months.
"The Ministry has been seeking opinion of the states including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra for the last three months. They have not responded. Only Karnataka has responded to our queries. We are waiting for their responses to take further steps," a source in the Environment Ministry told PTI.
Sources also said Karnataka has not fully accepted the recommendations of the committee, which has reportedly designated the entire hill range as an ecologically-sensitive Area.
The Committee has reportedly classified the 142 taluks in the Western Ghats boundary into Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZ) 1, 2 and 3 and also recommended that no new dams based on large-scale storage be permitted in ESZ 1.
The mountain range starts in Maharashtra, near the border of Gujarat, and runs approximately 1600 km through the states of Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala ending at Kanyakumari.
