The Dakshina Kannada unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has asked the two newly formed Cabinet Subcommittees to address the concerns and doubts of people regarding eco-sensitive zones as recommended by the Kasturirangan committee report.
The State government had recently announced that the two Cabinet Subcommittee — one headed by Minister for Forests B. Ramanath Rai and the other headed by Higher Education Minister R.V. Deshpande — would tour areas coming under the purview of the panel report.
Speaking to presspersons here on Thursday, Dakshina Kannada unit president Pratapsimha Nayak said there were a lot of apprehensions among village residents regarding eco-sensitive zones. The Cabinet Subcommittees should ally fears and doubts of people during their visits. The subcommittees should suggest relaxation of the panel’s recommendations to allow tourism-related activities and provide the people rights to the soil and minerals in their area, he said.
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The two subcommittees should consider the cultural landscape (that has human habitation) rather than natural landscape, which is based on satellite surveys, while declaring eco-sensitive zones. Moreover, the subcommittees should take into consideration the 2011 Census rather than the 2001 Census based on which the panel has given its recommendations.
The Kasturirangan panel report had kept 37 per cent of the Western Ghats region outside the eco-sensitive zone.
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The Centre has sought the opinion of six States, including Karnataka, on the panel report. The earlier Cabinet Subcommittee decided to increase the extent of the area to be exempted from being earmarked as eco-sensitive zone. Before recommending that, the Cabinet Subcommittee sought a report from the expert committee, which was asked to give its report after visiting places recommended by the panel as eco-sensitive zones. In light of the opposition expressed during the visit, the State government decided to form two separate Cabinet subcommittees.