States go public in their opposition to Western Ghats report
Madhav Gadgil’s excellent report on the Western Ghats is unlikely to get implemented. Already, Maharashtra and Kerala have gone public in their opposition to its recommendations.
Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, who had appointed the Western Ghats Ecology Experts Panel headed by Mr Gadgil, has come out in defence of this report insisting that the panel had come up “with a very balanced and detailed report.”
The Gadgil panel had recommended strict limits on development in this ecologically fragile zone which is the birthplace of several rivers, including Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Kunthi and Vaigai, and had also demanded an indefinite moratorium be placed on mining in these hills.
The Gadgil report had classified the Western Ghats into three ecologically sensitive zones which are 1) Regions of highest sensitivity or Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1 (ESZ-1), (2) Regions of high sensitivity (ESZ-2 ), and (3) Regions of moderate sensitivity(ESZ-3). Based on this categorisation, the panel recommended that both the Athirappilly project in Kerala and the Gundai hydel project in Karnatka should not receive green clearance as it came under the ESZ–1 category.
The Maharashtra state government is unhappy because the panel advocated banning of power and mining projects in the Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts.
Though the Goa government has not gone public in its Opposition, NGOs in the state complain the new government is not happy that the panel wants an indefinite moratorium on new environmental clearances in ESZ-1 and ESZ-2 and a phasing out of mining in ESZ-2 by 2016.
It was because of these recommendations that despite the report being submitted to the ministry of environment & forests in August 2011, the ministry had refused to make it public. It did so with great reluctance on May 23 2012,.
But even when the report was put on its website, this was done with a rider which stated that the report “had not been formally accepted.”
Environment minister Jayanti Natarajan’s refusal to take a stand on this report has also evoked considerable anger from activists.
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