Summary:
“This is wholly unjustified and causes great distress. Panaji: The ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) should initiate measures to implement a more comprehensive protection regime in the Western Ghats following the flooding disasters in Kerala and Kodagu instead of proposals in the recently issued draft notification.Goa Founation, a voluntary organisation, stated this in a memorandum submitted to the ministry.The organisation has stated that the same notification for the protection of the Western Ghats, which was issued thrice earlier, can only be a stop-gap arrangement. Fifty hectares is a vast area of land,” the memorandum stated adding that only residential houses and not buildings, with area under 20,000 sqm, should be allowed.“If the destruction of natural landscape is allowed within 50 hectares of land under the so-called MoEF conservation regime, the whole notification is rendered futile,” the memorandum stated. They further stated that a more comprehensive notification, based on the Madhav Gadgil-headed Western Ghats ecology experts panel (WGEEP) report is needed instead of the ‘substandard one’ prepared by a high-level working group (HLWG - Kasturirangan report).The ministry has notified a proposal to earmark 56,825 sqkm (37%) of the Western Ghat area as the ecologically sensitive area (ESA) in six states. This will virtually opens up the balance 63% of it to development activity without any limits or conditions.Regarding the phasing out of existing mines within five years or till the lease expires, Goa Foundation alleged that the ministry has succumbed to mining lobbies.As seen by past practices, miners will intensify extraction of minerals without safeguards, creating havoc in hilly regions, it stated adding that a complete and immediate ban on mining is a must.Further, while even the HLWG report had kept out townships from ESAs, the draft notification proposes them in an area under 50 hectares..