In a major blow to protection of Western Ghats, Karnataka Government has rejected the recommendations of K Kasturirangan Committee report.
This is the second time the State Government has rejected the report based on recommendations made by a sub-committee. Informing this in the ongoing Winter Session of the Karnataka Council at Belagavi, State’s Forest Minister R Shankar has said that he would request the State Cabinet to reject the report as it hampered the livelihoods of thousands of people living in the Western Ghats region in Karnataka. He also said if implemented it will hinder development.
Forest Minister Shankar said, “The sub-committee headed by me has decided to reject the recommendations of the report. The report will be placed before the Cabinet soon. We will urge the Government to convey to the Centre that the State does not want to implement the report. Though Karnataka has rejected the report earlier, the Centre has not accepted the same. It has sent us a fourth notification.” He was replying to a question by the Congress MLC Ivan D’souza who had demanded that the Government make its stand clear on this issue.
The Kasturirangan Committee has recommended that 20,668 sq km spread across 11 districts in the Western Ghats cradling 1,592 villages be declared as Ecological Sensitive Areas (ESA). When the Centre sought Karnataka to demarcate the ESA through its first two notifications, the state government had requested the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to exclude populated areas, farmlands and plantations from being declared as ESAs.
The previous Siddaramaiah-led Congress Government had also rejected the same in 2017.
The lawmakers from this region have been opposing the implementation of the Kasturirangan Report and the state government has accepted their demand.