MoEF issues fresh order on Kasturirangan recommendation

The Environment Ministry has issued a fresh order to follow in the footsteps of the in principle acceptance of the Ksatrurirangan committee report on 20 December 2013 and withdrawn 16 November 2013 notification.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) order has now clarified that the recommendations made by the Kasturirangan led High-Level Working Group (HLWG) has not placed any fresh restrictions on land use in the ESA.

The order that follows would thus not impact the continued occupation of land in possession of the local people or affect their day to day activities or normal livelihood.

The HLWG report however maintains the bans on the following

• Mining, quarrying, sand mining, thermal power plants
• Building construction projects on areas that are 20000 sq m or more, township and area development projects with an area of 50ha and above and red category of industries in ESA.

The HLWG defines 37 percent of the Western Ghats landscape as ecologically sensitive.

Ministry said that a high-level committee of the Environment Ministry will be set up to monitor the implementation of the recommendations of the HLWG in a time-bound manner.

The Ministry accepted all the other major recommendations made by the HLWG like financial arrangements to incentivise green growth in Western Ghats, participation of and involvement of local communities in decision making, data monitoring systems especially the establishment of Decision support and Monitoring Centre for Western Ghats are accepted.

The Ministry of Environment‘s order dated December 20, issued to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Image credit: Magentic Manifestations on Wikipedia