JOIN USESA notification: States have learned no lesson
With the Centre extending the validity of the draft notification on the Kasturirangan report, which made recommendations for the preservation of the Western Ghats, a decision on this important matter has again been postponed. The draft notification, which was issued in 2018 and expired on December 31, has been extended for the fifth time as various states have raised concerns about the recommendations. The deadline for the final notification has been put off for another six months. But it is not certain whether there will be any decision even by June 30, considering the pressures being brought upon the Centre by the states. Kerala and Karnataka have the most serious objections. The states have conveyed theirs concerns to the Centre, and the Centre took the easy way out and put off a decision, obviously on political considerations.
The Kasturirangan committee had in 2013 recommended that an area of 56,825 sq km spread across the Western Ghats be declared an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) where many activities like mining and quarrying would be banned or restricted. The committee had in fact diluted the recommendations of the Madhav Gadgil committee that came before it. Governments are now unwilling to accept even the watered-down proposals and want thousands of square kilometres of the Ghat region to be exempt. Karnataka wants exemption for 6,500 sq km out of the proposed 20,668 sq km, and Kerala for 1,337 sq km out of the proposed 9,993 sq km. While Kerala is worried about how the notification would affect habitations in the higher ranges, Karnataka’s concerns are about ‘development’ activities, a euphemism mostly for mining and quarrying and changing land use. These activities involve the destruction of the environment, pollution and even deforestation.
It is unfortunate that the states are unwilling to see the dangers of the unchecked assault on nature that has gone on for decades. The Western Ghats are among the most ecologically sensitive areas in the world and very rich in biodiversity. They have a big role in regulating the weather and climate of the states they straddle. The extreme climate events and natural calamities witnessed in the past few years in these states in the form of floods, landslides, etc., are to a good extent the result of the liberties taken with nature in the Western Ghat region. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said last month that the state cabinet had decided to oppose the implementation of the Kasturirangan report in the interest of ‘development’ and the livelihood of people. That is a wrong and unwise decision and will hurt the interests of the state and the people.
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