Talk to all states on Kasturirangan report, BS Yediyurappa tells Javadekar

Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has agreed to hold separate consultations with states on the contentious K Kasturirangan committee report on conserving the Western Ghats, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s office said Thursday.

Karnataka has repeatedly rejected the recommendations of the committee, Yediyurappa told Javadekar during a video conference, adding that the Centre cannot issue a common notification on the matter.

“Gram panchayats, taluk panchayats, zilla panchayats, elected representatives and the Cabinet have rejected the draft notification on ecologically sensitive areas according to the Kasturirangan report in its present format,” Yediyurappa said in the video conference, according to statement from the Chief Minister’s Office.

“Since every state has different problems and challenges, it is not for the Centre to issue an identical notification for all states. Javdekar expressed his consent on the matter and said that he would discuss the issue with the states individually,” the CMO said.

The Kasturirangan Committee has recommended that 20,668 sq km spread across 11 districts in the Western Ghats cradling 1,592 villages be declared as an Ecological Sensitive Area (ESA), which will come with restrictions that the government believes will hamper developmental works.

In all, the draft notification identified 56,825 sqkm spread across six states — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu — as the Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA).

The Centre issued the first draft notification in March 2014. A second one came in September 2015, followed by the third in February 2017. The fourth draft notification was issued in October 2018.

Forest Minister Anand Singh, Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar, Additional Chief Secretary (Forest, Ecology & Environment) Sandeep Dave, ministers and officials from Maharashtra, Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat participated in the video conference.