Except for notified forest, not a foot extra should be added to ESA: Shivamogga MP

Welcoming Karnataka’s Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar’s statement on convening a special session of the Legislature on the Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) notification, Shivamogga MP B.Y. Raghavendra appealed to the State Government to order a survey of the notified area and reduce its extent on the lines of the ‘Kerala model’.

Addressing a press meet in Shivamogga on August 29, Mr. Raghavendra said that, except for the already notified forest area, not even a foot of additional land should be brought under the ESA.

Mr. Raghavendra said the committees concerned with the ESA notification were formed during the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre. Responding to allegations that the Union Government was responsible for the issue, he said, “If the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union Government was anti-farmer, it would have cleared the notification in the first or the second draft itself.”

The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has issued the draft for the seventh time.

Welcoming the Chief Minister’s decision to convene a special session, Mr. Raghavendra said that, before the session, the State Government should, at the earliest, direct the district administration to conduct joint meetings of revenue and forest department officials to survey the ground situation.

He said a clear distinction should be drawn between natural landscapes and cultivated, or cultural, landscapes, pointing out that plantations of arecanut, rubber, pepper and ginger needed to be bifurcated from forest land before the notification is finalised.

Citing the Kerala model, Mr. Raghavendra said Kerala had reduced the area under the ESA by more than 3,000 sq. km. after a physical survey. Similarly, he said, Karnataka could bring down the total extent from 20,000 sq. km. to 15,000 sq. km., keeping the buffer zone at zero, ensuring that villages around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries were not affected.

Legislator S.N. Channabasappa and others were present at the press conference.