Expert Committee on Kasthurirangan to submit report soon: Oommen Chandy

THODUPUZHA: The Expert Committee set up by the Kerala government to look into the Kasthurirangan panel report on Western Ghats preservation would submit its report in two or three days, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said today.

"The Expert Committee has completed its hearing and evidence taking... they will submit the report in two to three days time, he said.

Chandy was speaking at the 'Jana Samparka Paripadi' (Mass contact programme) here.

The Committee, headed by Oommen V Oommen, Chairman of State Biodiversity Board, was formed to formulate the state's stand on panel report's recommendations.

The committee was tasked with evolving a consensus among people and creating awareness at grass root level on the recommendations in the light of protests and agitation by settled farmers in high range areas of the state.

Chandy assured people living in the high ranges that government is committed to protect farmers' interests.

He said the state had clearly stated that demarcation of whole villages as Ecologically Sensitive Area was not acceptable to it.

There should be clear cut demarcation between populated area and forest and plantations while defining Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA), he said.