After 200 die, Wayanad may finally get green protection
The proposal for the ecologically sensitive area (ESA) classification covers six states and 59,940 square km of the Western Ghats (roughly 37% of the range).
The Union environment ministry has issued a draft notification to declare the Western Ghats an ecologically sensitive area (ESA), including villages in Wayanad, where a devastating series of landslides on July 30 killed at least 210 people, with hundreds more still missing.
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The proposal for the ESA classification covers six states and 59,940 square kilometres of the Western Ghats -- or roughly 37% of the range -- was circulated as a draft notification dated July 31 and shared on Friday.
The latest draft is similar to one issued in July 2022. The move comes 13 years after the first such demarcation was recommended by a panel led by eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil in 2011. Since then, the proposed protected area has shrunk from the original 75% recommendation to the current 37%.
“This draft notification has been reissued because the previous draft expired. The high-level committee constituted by the MoEFCC is yet to conclude its report. They are yet to give us final suggestions based on responses from states including Kerala,” said a senior official at the Union environment ministry, asking not to be named.
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Experts suggested that the latest draft may have been prompted by recent devastating landslides in Wayanad district. Parts of Vythiri in Wayanad -- a popular tourist destination -- also figure in the ministry’s draft eco-sensitive area.
If finalised, the notification would impose a complete ban on mining, quarrying, sand mining, thermal power plants, and polluting industries in the designated areas. It would also prohibit new construction projects and township developments above certain thresholds.
The draft, now renewed for a sixth time, states: “All new and expansion projects of building and construction with built-up area of 20,000 square metres and above, and all new and expansion townships and area development projects with an area of 50 hectares and above or with built-up area of 150,000 square metres and above shall be prohibited.”
Additionally, hydropower projects and less polluting industries would be regulated, and a monitoring mechanism would be established.
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As the draft notification now stands, it is up to the Western Ghats state governments — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu — to accept or reject the proposal. The outcome of this long-standing environmental protection effort remains uncertain, with conservation needs clashing with the developmental aspirations in one of India’s most ecologically significant regions.
Kerala forest and environment minister AK Saseendran said, “I am part of the cabinet sub-committee overseeing the rescue and relief operations in Wayanad so I have not got the opportunity to look at the draft notification. I will have to look at what the fresh notification says and will eventually take a decision. It’s a highly complicated matter.”
The notification acknowledges that Kerala had previously undertaken an exercise to demarcate Ecologically Sensitive Areas through physical verification. The ESA recommended by the Kerala government covers 9,993.7 square kilometres, including 9,107 square kilometres of forest area and 886.7 square kilometres of non-forest area. This is less than the 13,108 square kilometres recommended by a high-level working group.
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The implementation of the ESA designation has faced numerous challenges, with Western Ghats state governments raising various objections to previous drafts. The central government held multiple meetings with state representatives to discuss the issue, including high-level consultations on February 15, 2019, May 21, 2020, November 23, 2021, and December 3-4, 2021.
To address states’ concerns, the environment ministry constituted a high-level committee to “re-examine the suggestions of the six state governments in a holistic manner, keeping in view the conservation aspects of the disaster-prone pristine ecosystem, and the rights, privileges, needs and developmental aspirations of the region”, the draft states.
Further discussions were held throughout 2022, 2023, and early 2024, with the most recent meeting taking place from March 26-28 2024.
The history of Western Ghats protection efforts dates back to the Gadgil panel’s recommendation in 2011 to cover 75% of the 129,037 sq-km mountain range. This suggestion met with resistance from several states, which deemed it too restrictive. A second committee, headed by rocket scientist K Kasturirangan, scaled down the overall ecologically sensitive area to 50% in 2013, but its recommendations were also never fully implemented.
The Western Ghats, recognised as a global biodiversity hot spot, harbours many endemic species of flowering plants, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and invertebrates. It features unique habitats such as Myristica swamps, home to the lion-tailed macaque and Nilgiri tahr, as well as shola forests, flat-topped lateritic plateaus, and wetland and riverine ecosystems.
Kanchi Kohli, an independent legal and policy expert, commented on the prolonged process: “The formal process of legally notifying the ecological sensitivity of the Western Ghats is pending for 15 years, even though the demands for it go back to the late 1990s. It is clear by now that restrictions on how much the Western Ghats should be conserved is a highly political question. But the grave social and ecological consequences are visible today. The regulatory zoning of the Western Ghats is not just an environmental question; it is also about how multiple risks are managed.”
“Any landscape-based zonation is important because it gives you a buffer of how much of landscape can be restored and revitalised. Further, it bars any kind of encroachment of any sorts as a result there is some cover against the harsher impacts as climate change. Western Ghats are impacted by climate change. In fact, none of India’s districts are insulated. The overall change in risk landscape is bit slower over Western Ghats compared to other areas. This is mainly because the natural ecosystem footprint is higher in the Western Ghats,” said Abinash Mohanty, sector head for climate change and sustainability with research firm IPE-Global.
CR Neelakandan, writer and environmental activist in Kerala, said, “I don’t think the Kasturirangan report on the Western Ghats is very practical as there is little scope for public participation in it. Before the draft notification is accepted or rejected by states including Kerala, I believe it should be put up for people, especially those living in the Ghats, to share their opinions and inputs on it. It should not be implemented like an order.”