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After Wayanad disaster, Centre re-issues draft Western Ghats notification
Search and rescue operations continue at the landslide-hit Chooralmala, in Wayanad district on August 2, 2024. At least 205 people were killed and 265 suffered injuries in the landslides, according to officials.
| Photo Credit: PTI
In the aftermath of this week’s devastating landslide in Wayanad in Kerala, the Union government has re-issued — for the sixth time in a decade — a draft notification classifying parts of the Western Ghats in six States as ecologically sensitive areas (ESAs). This would impose restrictions on economic activities such as quarrying, mining, and large infrastructural development in these areas. A senior official told The Hindu that the timing of this sixth draft was “coincidental”, and was not related to the Wayanad disaster.
The last time this draft was issued was in July 2022. Among other areas, it had proposed to declare 13 villages in Wayanad, spanning the three talukas of Mananthavady, Sulthan Bathery, and Vythiri, as part of an ESA. Despite its six iterations, howevet, the draft notification is yet to become law, as all six affected States — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu — have objected to specific places that have been included in the ESA regions. The dominant sentiment in Kerala was that this notification would subsume agricultural plantations, curtail the State’s hydro-electricity plans, and would lead to a migration crisis given the State’s high population density.
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‘Coincidental timing’
The current draft, issued on July 31 and made public on August 2, is “open to comments” from the public for 60 days. While such notifications typically become law after that period, the Union government has historically refrained from doing so with regard to this particular notification given the severe public backlash that it has invited.
A senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the latest reissue of the notification was not connected to the Wayanad disaster. “The fifth version of the draft was issued in July 2022. While open for comments for 60 days, a draft is valid for 725 days and this ended on on the 31st (July 2024). So we had to reissue it. There’s no change in the content. The tragedy in Wayanad is just coincidental,” he told The Hindu. “It is difficult to get the States to arrive at a consensus and the committee is looking into it. Hopefully this will be final draft,” he added. The first version of the draft had been issued in March 2014.
State backlash
A committee steered by ecologist Madhav Gadgil and mandated to examine the degree of protection needed in the Western Ghats recommended in 2011 that the entire region – spanning 1,29,000 square km – be declared as ecologically sensitive. Following consultations with residents, industrialists, and government officials connected to the Western Ghats States, the Gadgil panel recommended the creation of three broad zones – ESA 1, ESA 2 and ESA 3 – with the first two inviting the strictest restrictions on economic activity. With the States unwilling to accept the recommendations, a second committee led by former ISRO chairman K. Kasturirangan reconvened the exercise and halved the area of protected regions.
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The committee also invited States to draw up their own ESAs. Kerala was the first to do so, followed by others. While there have been several meetings involving the Centre and the States that have spanned both the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance governments, it has been a challenge to arrive at a consensus ESA zone within the Western Ghats spanning all the States.
At present, the total ESA area across all States amounts to 56,825 square km. Kerala has 9,993 sq km; Karnataka 20,668 sq km, Tamil Nadu 6,914 sq km; Maharashtra 17,340 sq km; Goa 1,461 sq km and Gujarat 449 sq km.
New panel
A separate committee has been constituted to examine the concerns of States and it was expected that a final notification would follow upon the recommendation of this committee. “…the said Committee is addressing the issues raised by the States in the Western Ghats region on discrepancies or information gaps in the draft notification… July, 2022, on the correct names and area of villages to be included in the Ecologically Sensitive Area. The Committee is also examining the suggestions received from the State Governments,” the latest draft said.
This committee, constituted in 2022, is mandated to balance “…conservation aspects of the disaster prone pristine ecosystem, and the rights, privileges, needs and developmental aspirations of the region”, but is yet to submit its report.
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Once the ESA notification is finalised, it will invite a “…complete ban on mining, quarrying and sand mining in the ESA and all existing mines would have to be phased out within five years.” New thermal power projects and the expansion of existing plants will not be allowed, and new ‘Red category’ industries – a list of which will be drawn up the Central Pollution Control Board – will be prohibited. New and expansion projects of building and construction with built-up areas of 20,000 square metres and above, and all new and expansion townships and area development projects with an area of 50 hectares and above, or with built-up area of 1,50,000 square metres and above will also be prohibited. Hydropower projects conforming to certain conditions will, however, be allowed, and a separate monitoring mechanism will be established for economic activity in the region.
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