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Centre’s notification on eco-sensitive zone triggers protests in Wayanad
People living in fringe areas of the forest say many human settlements will come under the zone and the new announcement will cripple their lives.
The Union Environment Ministry’s draft notification on an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) in Wayanad (north Kerala) which runs around the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary has triggered a fresh round of protest with the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) calling a shutdown on Monday in the district.
People living in fringe areas of the forest say many human settlements will come under the zone and the new announcement will cripple their lives. Workers of the ruling Left Democratic Front and UDF have burnt copies of the draft notification and staged demonstrations in the district on Friday. The Diocese of Sultan Bathery also threatened to hit the streets—since a majority of people living in the fringe areas are Christians.
Congress leaders said they had informed
who represents the parliamentary constituency, about the simmering unrest. With assembly elections just two months away, the issue has given enough fodder to parties and they are busy chalking out their strategies to exploit the situation.
According to the draft notification published by the ministry last week, the ESZ will cover an area of 118.59 km which includes 8.89 km of the Tirunelly reserve forest of north Wayanad and 17.67 km of Chedelaythu range in south Wayanad. Rich in biodiversity, the 344 sq km Wayanad wildlife sanctuary is a favourite habitat of elephants and tigers. Green activists have been questioning the fast depleting canopy of Wayanad, also a favourite get-away. Last month a tourist who was staying in a tent put up by a resort inside the forest was trampled by an elephant.
“If the notification is approved at least 30 per cent of Wayanad’s total area will come under the ESZ. Where will people go? Thousands of people will be displaced. We need forests but at the same time people should also be allowed to live,” said district Congress leader N D Appachan. He said the state government’s indifferent attitude led to the notification. But the government has denied this.
State forest minister K Raju, who is undergoing treatment for Covid-19, said the government would study the latest notification in detail and there is no need of any apprehension now. Last year the government had asked the Union Environment Ministry to amend ESZ provisions while fixing buffer zones around sanctuaries and excluding human habitat.
Wayanad district collector Adeela Abdullah also said it was only a draft and the final notification will be issued after several rounds of discussions and revisions. But green activists have welcomed the notification. “It will help curtail human incursions into wildlife habitat and lessen man-animal conflict and preserve endemic flora and fauna,” said Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti, a prominent group of environmentalists and nature lovers.
According to the Union Environment Ministry, the draft will be taken up for consideration after 60 days and the public can send their comments and suggestions during this period to the secretary of the ministry. The state had witnessed violent protest in 2012 against two expert committee reports, Gadgil and Kasturirangan, aimed at protecting the fragile ecology of the Western Ghats.
In Kerala, the Catholic Church was in the forefront of the agitation because a majority of the ecologically sensitive areas come under the Christian belt. When the country was facing acute food shortage after independence, Christian settlers were encouraged to move to forest areas under the ‘Grow more food campaign’. Now the church fears that believers would be evicted in the name of ecology.
