A two-member delegation comprising Principal Secretary, Environment, P. Mara Pandiyan and Oommen V. Oommen, chairman, Kerala State Biodiversity Board, is preparing to leave for Delhi on Wednesday with a detailed report demarcating the Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) in Kerala identified for conservation of the Western Ghats.
Prepared on the basis of a field verification by panchayat-level committees in 119 villages, the report will be submitted to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to prepare the final notification on the ESAs for the State.
“We have received the maps showing the ESA based on survey numbers in all the 119 villages,” Dr. Oommen said.
The report is essentially a fine-tuned version of the cadastral maps prepared by biodiversity board earlier. The non-ESA portion falling within forest areas has been subdivided and shown as part of the existing survey number to demarcate it from the ESA.
Government stance
This follows the decision of the government to restrict ESAs to protected forestland.
The initial decision to allot subdivision survey numbers for human settlements and farmland within forestland was given up following criticism that it would amount to regularising encroachments.
Dr. Oommen said a hard copy and CD of the report including the maps would be submitted to the Ministry.
Greens protest
The decision to subdivide forestland and earmark it as non-ESA had invited strong opposition from environmentalists who felt that it would pose a severe setback in the protracted legal battle to take back forestland from encroachers.
