The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) informed the National Green tribunal (NGT) on Monday that State Governments in the Western Ghats region may propose exclusion or inclusion of certain areas in Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) after undertaking demarcation by physical verification. The States include Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
“Such proposals of the State Governments received after physical verification, would be examined by the MoEF before taking a view on further appropriate action including issuing a fresh draft notification, if required, to seek fresh objections from the public on the proposals received from the State Governments of Western Ghats region,” said the affidavit.
It was filed by Ashok lavasa, Secretary of MoEF before a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar. The bench directed the counsel appearing for MoEF to seek instructions and listed the matter for hearing on September 24.
The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by the NGOs Goa Foundation and Peaceful Society, which had sought to restrain the authorities from granting fresh nods to projects in the Western Ghats region.
Terming the Western Ghats as “hotspots of biodiversity”, the petition had stated that the region harbours the largest global populations of the Asian elephant besides other mammals like tiger.
On August 27, in an affidavit filed before the NGT, MoEF had informed that it was examining the recommendations of Kasturirangan-led panel and would not process the Gadgil report for further action.
The Environment Ministry, which had junked the report on Western Ghats by Madhav Gadgil, had told the tribunal that it casts doubt on both the reports of Gadgil and Kasturiranganand wants to do physical demarcation by conducting a survey.
The Tribunal had, earlier, pulled up the Ministry of Environment and Forests for changing its stand on the issue of protection of ecologically sensitive Western Ghats and called it as the “most messy Ministry”.