Centre plans to revisit issues on Western Ghats eco-sensitive areas

New Union environment minister Anil Dave wants to have fresh rounds of consultations with all stakeholders before deciding on the ecologically sensitive areas in the Western Ghats that were identified by the Centre in March 2014.

The Centre had issued a draft gazette notification more than two-and-a-half years ago declaring almost 10,000 sq km of the Western Ghats as ESA barring development activities.

The minister, on Thursday, met seven MPs from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, including former agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who sat through almost two hours of discussions on the Western Ghats.

Other lawmakers who attended the meeting were Shashi Tharoor, A Sampath, K Somaprasad and P K Shrimati Teacher (all from Kerala); Tiruchi Siva (Tamil Nadu) and Vinayak Bhaurau Raut (Maharashtra). However, lawmakers from Karnataka, Goa and Gujarat were absent.

“Within six months, we intend to prepare a complete plan on preserving the Western Ghats while taking care of the roads, power and drinking water needs of people living there. I will go to remote areas and talk to the common man in the villages and forests
before taking a decision,” he said.

In the last two years, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala had submitted their own ground surveys with their objections, on the identification of villages falling inside the ESA. Tamil Nadu is the only state which is yet to submit its ground survey report.

The hamlets falling within the ESA were identified by a scientific panel, headed by space scientist K Kasturirangan, using satellite and ground data.

But most of the states disagree with the draft notification and want the ESA area reduced. The green lobby, on the other hand, is against any dilution of the draft notification based on the Kasturirangan panel's report.

A section of environmentalists is even of the opinion that the Kasturirangan panel's report was a watered down version of the recommendations given by an earlier committee headed by ecologist Madhav Gadgil.

Dave said reports from the state governments would be used as inputs for consultations on the Western Ghats. The ministry would engage with MPs and MLAs from the six Western Ghats states, besides scientists, green activists and locals before taking any decision.

After the first notification lapsed, a second draft notification was issued on September 4, 2015.

Dave's predecessor Prakash Javadekar had stated that barring four types of polluting industrial works, other commercial activities would be permitted in the Western Ghats so that the eco-norms won’t create any problem for 50 lakh people living in the biodiversity zone. The activities, Javadekar said would not be permitted, were commercial mining, thermal power plants, any kind of polluting industries and big housing projects.