The State government will undertake to protect 886.7 sq km of non-forestland included as ecologically sensitive area (ESA) in the draft notification issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan informed the Assembly on Tuesday.
Replying to a calling attention motion moved by K.C. Joseph, he said local bodies and Biodiversity Management Committees would be trained and equipped to take up the protection of the non-forest areas.
The government, he said, would exert pressure on the Centre to bring out a notification exempting non-forest areas from the area demarcated as ESA under the Kasturirangan committee report for protection of the Western Ghats. Of the 9,993.7 sq km demarcated as ESA in Kerala, 9,107 sq km comprised forestland and the rest was non-forest.
The Chief Minister said the final notification on ESAs was held up by the delay on the part of Tamil Nadu in submitting its response. The State had already taken up the issue with the Centre and sought a fresh notification, he said.
Earlier moving the motion, Mr.Joseph said the high ranges in Kerala were restive over the delay in excluding populated areas, agriculture land, and plantation regions from the final notification on the ESAs.
Kerala, he said, was the first State to submit a detailed report including cadastral maps showing the extent of ESAs after exempting farmlands and human settlements.
Pointing out that the draft notification would lapse by March 4, he said Kerala could demand a separate notification on the ESAs in the State.
