Taking exception to the latest draft notification issued by the Centre on Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) in Western Ghats region, legislators from Karnataka’s Western Ghats area, cutting across party affiliations, and Ministers have decided to take up a legal fight against it. A delegation led by the Chief Minister will also meet Central authorities.
A meeting of legislators from Malnad region, convened by Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, who too hails from there, arrived at this decision on Monday in Bengaluru.
The recent notification has listed 20,668 sq km of area in Karnataka as ESA of the total extent of 46,832 sq km of ESA in the country spread across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Tamil Nadu. It has identified 1,572 villages in 10 districts of Karnataka as those covered by regulations and restrictions related to ESA.
Monday’s meeting was attended, among others, by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Speaker Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri and former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa besides a host of Ministers and legislators from all the three major parties.
Briefing mediapersons after the meeting, Mr. Jnanendra said a delegation of legislators and MPs from the affected region would be taken to the Union Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) under the leadership of the Chief Minister seeking suitable modifications in the notification.
Impact on livelihood
Mr. Jnanendra said the meeting had also decided to create public awareness on the impact of the Centre’s notification on local residents and their livelihood.
Expressing concern that life of people in rural areas in Western Ghats would become tough if the Centre’s draft notification was accepted without any changes, the Home Minister said a struggle would be taken up against the notification.
He alleged that no scientific survey had been undertaken to arrive at the quantum of ESA in the Western Ghats before issuing the draft notification. At the same time, the Centre had not considered any of the objections filed by the State in this regard, he said.
Political fallout
While the notification has caused concern in the Western Ghats area and also shown signs becoming a political issue ahead of the next Assembly elections, the Centre’s notification has a footnote which makes it clear that the ‘’actual area will be finalised based on the recommendations of the State, views of stakeholders and ESZ expert committee’’.
