PANAJI
The proposal of the Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to notify ecologically sensitive areas (ESAs) around the sanctuaries and protected forests along the Western Ghats encompassing 99 Goan villages is facing stiff opposition from an unlikely quarter -- Vishwajit Rane, Goa's forest minister itself.
On Monday, Rane said the Goa government will demand removal of the 99 villages from the Centre’s draft ESA notification.
"We don’t want the notification. We should be excluded from the notification,” Rane asserted.
Rane, who ironically also holds the forest portfolio, claimed he had already spoken to Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav and the Director General of Forests and expressed the sentiment that villagers in Goa do not want the 99 villages demarcated as ESAs.
Rane said, he has prepared a formal email which will be routed to the Union Minister through Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, adding that he had also discussed the matter with Sawant.
He also drew attention to the fact that neighbouring Karnataka, which is also ruled by the BJP, has also raised objections to the draft ESA notification.
The draft notification was issued by the MOEF&CC back in July, which intended to declare 1,461 square kilometers in Goa as Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA).
These 1,461 sq kms covered 99 villages in Sattari, Sanguem and Canacona talukas. In Sattari, 56 villages fall in the proposed ESA and five from Canacona. Sanguem taluka had 38 villages covered.
In toto, a massive 56,825 square kilometers spread over five other States -- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu -- was proposed as a contiguous Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area.
The process to identify eco-sensitive areas of the Western Ghats to be protected was one that dated back several years with two different expert panels making separate recommendations.
First the Madhav Gadgil-led Western Ghat Ecology Expert Panel had recommended nearly 75 per-cent of the nearly 1,29,037 square kilometer long mountain range needed to be protected.
Later, another panel headed by space scientist K Kasturirangan, had recommended a smaller 37 per-cent area of the ghats representing 59,940 square kilometers as eco-sensitive area to be protected.
