ESA notification raises concern among people in hilly regions of Kerala
Residents and farmers in Kerala are protesting a new draft notification that designates nearly 10,000 square kilometers of the Western Ghats as an ecologically sensitive area. Local groups fear the restrictions will negatively impact farmlands and residential habitations across 12 districts.
Why it matters
The conflict highlights the tension between environmental conservation efforts and the livelihoods of local communities in ecologically fragile regions.
With the Union government issuing its seventh draft notification regarding the ecologically sensitive area (ESA) zone across the Western Ghats, residents and farmers’ groups have voiced apprehension about the resultant restrictions in Kerala’s populated, hilly regions.
Issued on July 27, the draft notification designates 9,993.7 sq km in Kerala as ESA out of the total 56,825.7 sq km designated nationwide. Farmer leaders noted that with 131 villages from the State now included in the draft notification, nearly 1,500 sq km (around 3.7 lakh acres) of farmlands and human habitations fall in the ESA zone.
The designated villages span across 12 districts: Idukki, Ernakulam, Kannur, Kollam, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, and Wayanad. Local farmers’ movements are demanding the State government’s intervention to ensure the exclusion of populated areas from the final ESA list.
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