MoEF nod to agriculture, plantation activities along Western Ghats

New Delhi: Stung by protests in Kerala, Environment Ministry on Friday clarified that there is no ban on agriculture and plantations activities along the Western Ghats. At the same time, the Ministry said that ban will continue 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 ha and above or with built up area of 1,50,000 sq m and above.

The ministry issued the fresh notification superseding the earlier one which had created a controversy and led to its withdrawal from the ministry's website. "This OM (Office Memorandum) supersedes all other OMs issued earlier on this subject," the fresh notification said.

In its earlier order, the ministry had said, "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November 2013 regarding 'in principle' acceptance of High Level Working Group (HLWG) Report on Western Ghats stands withdrawn."

Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said that 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, Karnataka, 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 ecologically sensitive area (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 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 ESA.