Cut Western Ghats green cover: Panel

Thiruvananthapuram: The panchayat-level committees formed to rework the boundaries of Kasturirangan-defined ecologically sensitive areas have together recommended an average of 85-90 percent reduction in the extent of the proposed ESAs.

All the 120 committees, except for a few in Kollam and Pathanamthitta, have submitted their reports to the respective collectorates. The Centre had assured Western Ghats states that ESAs will be demarcated only after getting ground-level inputs.

The committees were given the mandate to conduct spot verification in all the 123 villages declared as ESA by the Kasturirangan panel and identify and separate forest area, human settlements, agricultural lands and plantations.

The committees were asked to complete their spot verification before January 10 and submit their reports by January 13. The Kasturirangan panel had declared the entire 123 villages as ESA.

Most of the committees have taken the stand that Kasturirangan had erred in a big way. 

For instance, the panchayat committee for Peerumedu village in Idukki, with the aid of maps and documents, has submitted that only 3.25 percent of the village is ESA.

It has produced maps to show that 4021.79 hectares of the total 6216.88 hectares are made up of human settlements, plantations and agricultural lands.

Even the committee for Mankulam village in Idukki, which has 8,271 hectares of reserve forest, has recommended that 2,488 hectares be taken out of ESA. Even the highly forested villages in Attappady – Agali, Puthur and Sholayur – have together called for unhinging 70-75 percent of its areas from ESA.

The committee for Chunkathara village (Malappuram) has recommended that 85 percent of its area be taken out of ESA.

“We found that the Kasturirangan panel had reached its conclusions on the basis of an old revenue sketch. We have produced the new documents in our report,” said panchayat president C.D. Sebastian. 

The committee for Amboori village in Thiruvananthapuram has produced documents to show that 90 percent of its area constitutes rubber plantation.