States may propose more eco-sensitive areas: Green ministry to NGT

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has reiterated the previous government’s stance on the Western Ghats, that the state governments involved may further restrict portions within an ecologically sensitive area (ESA).

The Union environment ministry informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that states with areas falling in the Ghats may “propose the exlusion/inclusion of certain areas from/in the ESA”, just as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had notified in March this year. The states may undertake demarcation of ESA by physical verification and the proposals will be examined by the Union government before any action is taken, which might be followed by a fresh draft notification, an affidavit filed by Ashok Lavasa, secretary of the Union environment ministry, said here before a bench headed by NGT head, Swatanter Kumar.

To study the impact of industrial activity in the Western Ghats, the UPA government had set up first one and then another committee. The first was under ecologist Madhav Gadgil and another under former Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan. The Centre had recently informed the NGT through an affidavit that it would pursue implementation of the latter's report, rather than Gadgil’s.     

The Gadgil panel had marked the entire biodiversity hotspot as an ecologically-sensitive area, proposing a three-tiered restrictive regime. However, as states opposed this, another panel under Kasturirangan reviewed it. The new panel suggested a smaller area of about 60,000 sq km be kept as ESA. However, the states objected to this as well. The Tribunal had earlier this month pulled up the Union ministry for continued uncertainty over the issue of protection for the ecologically sensitive Ghats.

This was after the Centre had told the tribunal it had doubts on both the reports. The tribunal had asked the ministry to file a fresh affidavit in this regard within a week.