MoEF nod to agri, plantation activities along Western Ghats

In the wake of protests in Kerala, Environment Ministry today clarified that there is no ban on agriculture and plantations activities along the Western Ghats.

Withdrawing an earlier order issued by it, the Ministry said that ban on activities including red category industries, mining, quarrying, sand mining, thermal power plants, building and construction projects of 20,000 sq m area and above and township and area development projects with an area of 50 hectare and above or with built up area of 150,000 sq m and above will continue.

"The earlier OM (Office Memorandum)...Dated 16th November 2013 regarding 'in principle' acceptance of High Level Working Group (HLWG) Report on Western Ghats stands withdrawn," the Ministry said.

Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said, her Ministry has not gone back from its decision to implement the HLWG report prepared by a 10-member panel headed by K Kasturirangan.

In its order issued to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karn_ataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat, the Ministry said the recommendations also do not prohibit or restrict any normal activities relating to plantations, agriculture or any other activity except those which have been specifically prohibited or restricted in the ESA.

A high-level committee of the Environment Ministry will be set up to monitor the implementation of the recommendations of the HLWG in a time-bound manner, the government said.

It said that the recommendations given by the Kasturirangan panel neither put any fresh restrictions on land use in the ESA nor do they in any way impact the continued occupation of land in possession of the local people and affect their day to day activities or normal livelihood.

The Kasturirangan panel had identified 37 per cent of natural landscape of Western Ghats as Ecologically Sensitive Area. It is only 60,000 sq km ecologically sensitive area of Western Ghats covering an area of 180,000 square km.