Kottayam (Keralam) | Keralam Congress (M) chairman Jose K Mani on Monday raised concerns over the state government's report to the Centre containing its suggestions and objections to the seventh draft Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) notification.
The state on September 24 submitted its report to the Centre comprising its suggestions and objections to the seventh draft ESA notification issued on July 27.
Speaking to reporters, LDF leader said the issue had been repeatedly raised by residents and farmers during party meetings held in various districts.
He said an earlier report had proposed including 8,483 sq km across 123 villages in the ESA.
He said that earlier report was jointly prepared by the Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre (KSREC) and the Biodiversity Board.
Mani said the report was prepared based on inputs from panchayat presidents and officials of the Forest Department, Agriculture Department, Local Self-Government Department and Survey Department, following the directions of the Oommen V Oommen committee.
"Based on that, it precisely stated 8,483 sq km. However, even after reducing those 123 villages to 98, according to the latest report submitted, it is still 8,590 sq km.
"This means it is 107 sq km more than the previous technical report. When you hear 107, that is 107 times 100, which is 10,700 hectares of land. When converted to acres, we see an excess of nearly 26,500 acres of land," Mani said.
He expressed concern that inclusion of the additional area in the ESA would affect agricultural land outside forest areas.
"What happens if this excess is included? This ESA will encroach onto agricultural land outside the forest. These are the concerns regarding ESA," he said.
Environment Minister Sunny Joseph recently said Keralam had already succeeded in reducing the ESA proposed under the Kasturirangan report.
He said the state has also sought to reduce the number of villages covered by the ESA from 123 to 98 and limit its extent to 8,590.69 sq km.
According to Joseph, of the 9,993.7 sq km covered by the existing proposal, 9,107 sq km is forest area and 886.7 sq km is non-forest area.
If the 886.7 sq km of non-forest area is also excluded, the state's concerns would be fully addressed, he had said.
