The K Kasturirangan committee report had identified 60,000 sq km of the Ghats as ecologically sensitive, spread across 4,156 villages.
Environment and forest minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday, sought to assure Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to Western Ghats states that the Centre will not include settlements, plantations, agricultural land and horticulture land in eco-sensitive zones to take care of the livelihood in the region. Javadekar had called a meeting of several MPs, but only 22 turned up for it on Monday, largely from Kerala and Maharashtra. The meeting comes as part of the Centre's exercise to build consensus on demarcation of eco-sensitive zones, as recommended by the K Kasturirangan-headed high-level working group. The minister is likely to call another meeting next week.
The K Kasturirangan committee report had identified 60,000 sq km of the Ghats as ecologically sensitive, spread across 4,156 villages. It recommended prohibition on commercial mining and highly polluting industries. The meeting on Monday saw MPs giving their suggestions on what should be and what should not be included in the eco-sensitive zones.
Vinayak Raut, Anant Geete, Shrirang Barne of Shiv Sena, Husin Dalwai of Congress, Anil Shirole and Dilip Gandhi of BJP were present during the meeting. Shiv Sena MPs once again raised the issue of Jaitapur nuclear plant, that is planned in Madban village, Ratnagiri district. "The government should re-think the Jaitapur nuclear plant project, that has been accorded status of heritage site by UNSESCO. We also asked the minister to allow small quarrying, sand mining and mining of laterite rock that is used in homes in Konkan," Vinayak Raut told dna.
Following the submission of the Kasturirangan committee report in April 2013, the six states had been asked to carry out ground truthing surveys, that involved physical assessment of ESA boundaries, and consultation with villagers. Following the meeting, Prakash Javadekar said, "Today we have received written report, completed in all respects from Kerala and Goa. We have enquired with remaining four states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat and all the four states are ready with the report, but we have not received the reports. I hope that we will receive the report in the next two-three days and we will start studying the reports and factor in all the suggestions given by the Members of Parliament," Javadekar
The Kasturirangan report had said that all red category industries, which are identified as heavily polluting by the environment ministry and include fertilizer plants, oil refineries, tanneries and copper smelters in a list of more than 60 items should be strictly banned.
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