Personnel from the Mysuru Division of South Western Railway at work on the Hassan-Mangaluru line, near Kadagaravalli, Karnataka, on July 28, 2024. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement

In a Cabinet decision on September 27, the Karnataka government rejected the report on the Western Ghats prepared by a 10-member High-Level Working Group led by space scientist K. Kasturirangan. Since the submission of the report in 2013, six draft notifications on the proposed declaration of Eco-Sensitive Areas (ESAs) have been issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, to States through which the Western Ghats run.

All six notifications, including the latest one, which was issued on July 31, a day after the devastating landslides in Wayanad occurred, have been rejected by Karnataka. The announcement was made by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.K. Patil, who said that the Cabinet decision was taken after considering opposition from legislators representing constituencies in 10 hilly districts of western Karnataka through which the Western Ghats pass.

The Kasturirangan report proposed to identify 37 per cent of the Western Ghats as environmentally sensitive. In Karnataka this would mean that 20,668 sqkm would be demarcated as an ESA. Activities such as mining and quarrying would be prohibited; and other developmental activities, such as large constructions and road building, curtailed.Considering that this would affect developmental works in 1,576 villages,villagers and politicians from the area opposed the recommendations.

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Before this declaration, the Karnataka forest department had organised a consultation on September 19 to solicit the opinions of MLAs and MPs representing constituencies located in the Western Ghats region of the State. Khandre, who presided over this consultation, even proposed to cut down the ESA of Karnataka from 20,668 sqkm to 16,114 sqkm and assured political representatives that the State government would demand a special economic package from the Union government to offset any losses to the people of the region once the recommendations of the Kasturirangan report were implemented; but even this did not cut any ice with the politicians, who, across political lines, refused to endorse the Kasturirangan report.

Nayana Motamma, MLA of Mudigere, which a constituency located in the sylvan hills of Chikkamagaluru district, was one of the MLAs who voiced her objection at this meeting. Speaking to Frontline, Motamma justified her stand: “…since people’s livelihoods in my constituency are based on plantation and agricultural activities, we cannot be burdened with any further restrictions from the forest department. If these rules are implemented creating buffer zones in parts of my constituency, that would mean several activities would be curtailed,” she said. “As it is, the forest department does not allow us to fell aged trees by the roadside which is a danger during the monsoons. If the report is implemented, the forest department will get a free hand to restrain many activities on which livelihoods depend. Even government activities such as building schools, anganwadis, formation of sites are already restricted.”

The Karnataka government rejected the report on the Western Ghats prepared by a 10-member High-Level Working Group led by space scientist K. Kasturirangan. | Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K

Madhav Gadgil, the noted ecologist who headed the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel,had recommended that 75 per cent of the 1,29,037 sq km area of the Western Ghats running through Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, and Gujarat be declared as an ESA because of its forest cover and unique endemic species.  

Gadgil’s report (submitted in 2011) preceded the Kasturirangan Report. Vittal Hegde, an environmentalist and farmer based in Sringeri in Chikkamaggaluru district said: “After the landslides that took place in Wayanad and Shirur (in Karnataka), an uproar began that if the Gadgil and Kasturirangan reports had been implemented such natural disasters would not have taken place. There are also natural reasons for these disasters and it is a blatant lie that the implementation of the Gadgil or Kasturirangan reports would have averted such natural calamities. These reports will only alienate the people of the Western Ghats from the trajectory of development and lead to their eviction.”

Madhav Gadgil, the noted ecologist who headed the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel. | Photo Credit: Leju Kamal

Some however, are dismayed by the Karnataka cabinet’s decision to reject the Kasturirangan report. Akhilesh Chippali, a farmer and environmentalist who lives in a village close to Sagar said: “If the fragile environment of the Western Ghats must be protected for future generations, the government must take necessary steps. Several of us have been demanding that the recommendations of the Gadgil report should be implemented. Even though Kasturirangan watered down most concerns of Gadgil expressed, its implementation will at least be a start to preserve the pristine environment of this region that is already under threat from massive infrastructural projects.”

Chippali gave the example of the Sharavathi Pumped Storage Project, which envisages a hydroelectricity project on the Sharavathi river system in Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada districts. The project has been given the green flag by the Union government and the Central Electricity Authority but many environmentalists contend that this will affect the forests of the Sharavathi Wildlife Sanctuary, home to the endangered lion-tailed macaque. “If the Kasturirangan report had been implemented, such large infrastructural projects could not have been permitted,” said Chippali.

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While Karnataka has rejected the draft notification of the Kasturirangan report in toto, Kerala has responded to the notification by requesting the Union government’s expert committee to drop residential areas from the ESA zones. It is unclear what the other State governments will decide although the past five draft notifications on the declaration of ESAs have been met with outright rejections or counter proposals, which diluted the area that comes under the ESA zones.

After the Wayanad tragedy, some environmentalists in Karnataka urged the State government to implement the Kasturirangan report. In a move to assuage their sentiments, Forest Minister Khandre appointed a special task force on August 2 to recover encroached forest land in the Western Ghats. But according to environmental activist Joseph Hoover, while the intentions of Khandre are laudable, “…the officers on the ground are not pushing this agenda forcefully.” Hoover added, “local politicians are also triggering protests against the forest department by farmers in the region, which is delaying the entire process. This is why this project is stuck.”