LAND mafia is trying to pushing to get banned the implementation of Kasturi Rangan report:::::::::: There are so many agencies too supporting LAND MAFIA in Kerala ===================================== The Kasturirangan panel was set up to study the Gadgil committee report on the Western Ghats.NEW DELHI: Around 60,000 sq km of Western Ghats, spread across six states,should be turned into a no-go area for commercial activities like mining, thermalpower plants, polluting industries and large housing plans, the high-level workinggroup headed by Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan has recommended. The Kasturirangan panel was set up to study the Gadgil committee report on the Western Ghats.The Gadgil panel report had faced unanimous opposition from state governments forrecommending that almost three-fourth of the hills, including plantations, cultivated lands andlarge habitations, be turned into a restricted development zone with an over-arching authority toregulate the region superseding the elected authorities role.The Kasturirangan committee has in contrast advised against bringing cultivated lands,plantations and habitations outside the ambit of such a restrictive regime - called EcologicallySensitive Area (ESA) under the Environment Protection Act, 1976. Instead, it has suggested that90% of the natural forests left in the Western Ghats complex - adding upto 60,000 sq km andconstituting 37% of the entire hilly belt — be conserved under the ESA provisions of the greenlaw. The forest area falling within the ESA would also cover 4,156 villages across the six states.The panel has said, The villages falling under ESA will be involved in decision making on thefuture projects. All projects will require prior-informed consent and no-objection from the gramsabha (village council) of the village. The panel has recommended that there should be a complete ban on mining activity in this zoneand current mining activities should be phased out within five years, or at the time of expiry of themining lease. It has banned development of any township or construction over the size of 20,000sq m in the ESA zone. It has not recommended a ban on hydroelectric projects in the zone, butput a regime of stricter clearances for dams and other projects. For dams, it has demanded anuninterrupted ecological flow of at least 30% level of the rivers flow till individual baselines fordams are set. Cumulative studies to assess impact of dams on a river and ensuring that the minimum distance between projects is maintained at three km and that not more than 50% of theriver basin is affected at any time. The report suggests doing away with the complete moratorium on industrial and mining activity inthe two Maharashtra districts of Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri. It has suggested persisting with theban only on the area of the two districts falling within the ESA and a strict regulation in the rest.The report has steered clear from demanding a strict ecological control over the Western Ghatcomplex requiring changes and regulations on agricultural practices the way Gadgil committee report had suggested. It has also favoured a new authority to regulate the regions developmentand economic growth. The authors say, The high-level working group has deviated fromWGEEP (Gadgil committee report) by not recommending a blanket prescriptive on whatconstitutes good development, which will be implemented through a prohibitory regime. Instead,HLWG has considered and recommended prohibitory and regulatory regime only for thoseactivities with maximum interventionist and destructive impact on the ecosystem.Sunita Narain, member of the Kasturirangan panel and director general of Centre for Science andEnvironment (CSE), said, We have recommended ESA for natural areas which constitute 37% of the ghats. These areas must be protected. There is great biodiversity value outside these patchestoo but there we recommend a framework to incentivize people towards green growth and not aprohibitory or penalizing regime. The panel consisted of Ajay Tyagi, joint secretary in the environment ministry; J M Mauskar,retired senior bureaucrat; academicians C R Babu and Kanchan Chopra; Jagdish Kishwan,retired senior forest officer, P S Roy, deputy director of National Remote Sensing Centre;Darshan Shankar of Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions, a Karnataka-basedNGO and Indrani Chandrasekharan of Planning Commission besides Kasturirangan and Narain.The committee has also not recommended an outright rejection of the Athirapally hydroelectricproject in Kerala and Gundya dam in Karnataka. It has warned that the state government must assess if the Athirapally dam is viable and if the trade off against the loss of irreplaceablebiodiversity is beneficial. On the Gundya hydroelectric project, it has advised extreme caution andsaid the project should not get a green nod till an elaborate review of the river flows andecological damage are made. Reference: m.timesofindia/india/37-of-Western-Ghatsecologically- sensitive-Kasturirangan-panelreport/ articleshow/19607237.cms
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 16:27:55 +0000
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