Centre reissues draft notification on Western Ghats eco sensitive area

Centre reissues draft notification on Western Ghats eco sensitive area

Subject : Environment

Section: Biodiversity

Context:The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has reissued the draft notification of the Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) in Western Ghats, The ESA are spread over 46,832 square kilometres (sq km) across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,of which 20,668 sq. km is in Karnataka.

What are Eco-Sensitive Zones?

• Land area within 10 km of the boundaries of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries is to be notified as eco-fragile zones or Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZ)
• While the 10-km rule is implemented as a general principle, the extent of its application can vary
• Areas beyond 10-km can also be notified by the Union government as ESZs, if they hold larger ecologically important “sensitive corridors.

Why are Eco-Sensitive Zones created?

• ESZs are created as “shock absorbers” for the protected areas, to minimize the negative impact on the “fragile ecosystems” by certain human activities taking place nearby
• These areas are meant to act as a transition zone from areas requiring higher protection to those requiring lesser protection
• ESZs are not meant to hamper the daily activities of people living in the vicinity, but are meant to guard the protected areas and “refine the environment around them
• List of activities prohibited in an ESZ, such as commercial mining, saw mills, commercial use of wood, etc., apart from regulated activities like felling of trees
• Permitted activities like ongoing agricultural or horticultural practices, rainwater harvesting, organic farming, among others

Gadgil Report highlights

• The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) designated the entire hill range as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA)
• The report classified Western Ghats boundary into Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZ) 1, 2 and 3
• ESZ-1 being of high priority, almost all developmental activities (mining, thermal power plants etc) were restricted in it
• recommended that “no new dams based on large-scale storage be permitted in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1
• It asked for a bottom to top approach (right from Gram sabhas) of governance of the environment
• The commission recommended constitution of a Western Ghats Ecology Authority (WGEA), as a statutory authority under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, with the powers under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986

Kasturirangan committee

• The Kasturirangan committee was constituted to examine the WGEEP report
• Instead of the total area of Western Ghats, only 37% (i.e. 60,000 sq. km.) of the total area be brought under ESA 
• A complete ban on mining, quarrying and sand mining in ESA
• Distinguished between cultural (58% occupied in the Western Ghats by it like human settlements, agricultural fields and plantations) and naturallandscape (90% of it should come under ESA according to the committee)
• Current mining areas in the ESA should be phased out within the next five years
• No thermal power be allowed and hydropower projects are allowed only after detailed study.
• Red industriese. which are highly polluting be strictly banned in these areas
• It excluded the inhabited regions and plantations from the purview of ecologically sensitive areas