Kerala Leader of Opposition urges Centre to limit ESZs to forest land

As high range areas of Kerala continue to witness intense protests against the Supreme Court's recent order to create a one-km eco-sensitive zone around all wildlife sanctuaries and national parks, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly V D Satheesan on Wednesday urged the Centre to limit the ESZs to the forest land and protected areas alone.

He sent a letter to Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupendar Yadav, requesting to exempt agricultural land and dwelling places in the respective areas, saying that the verdict, otherwise, would affect the normal life of the common people and also the future developmental aspirations of the vast area.

''The order may adversely affect the normal life of the common man and agriculturists in Kerala who are settled within the above limit of land for several decades,'' Satheesan said.

Pointing out that Kerala is one state which has 30 per cent of its total land area as forest and protected sanctuaries, the Congress leader said it is also one of the highly densely populated states in the country. ''We have hill areas on one side and seashore on the other side. Various restrictions based on the CRZ and other environmental regulations have left a very narrow stretch of land for development activities in the state of Kerala,'' he said.

Further restrictions afresh would lead to a very complex situation and would affect the larger interests of the state, he noted.

''In this context, we would urge you (Centre) to take immediate, appropriate measures to limit the ESZ in the State of Kerala to the forest land and protected areas by exempting the agricultural land and dwelling places near and around the wildlife sanctuaries and protected areas,'' Satheesan added in the letter. The apex court recently issued a direction that each protected forest, including national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, must have an ESZ of one kilometre and banned mining activities within such parks across the nation.

The high range areas of Kerala, particularly areas in Idukki, Wayanad, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts, had been witnessing hartals by various political and farmers' groups against the apex court order delivered on June 3.

Issuing a slew of directions, a bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao had on June 3 ordered that no permanent structure will be allowed within such ESZs and said if the local law or other rules provide for an ESZ of more than one km then the earlier provision would continue to apply.

The SC order came on a batch of applications filed on a pending PIL of 1995 and they raised two sets of issues with the first one related to mining activities in and around Jamua Ramgarh, a wildlife sanctuary in Rajasthan.

The second set of issues was related to prescribing ESZs surrounding the wildlife sanctuaries and national parks.