Western Ghats: Oomen Chandy meets Prakash Javadekar

NEW DELHI: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today met Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and urged the Centre to accept the revised Eco Sensitive Areas (ESA) in the State.

The meeting comes as the proposed final notification of the Kasturirangan report on Western Ghats is just a few days away.

Briefing newspersons at a press conference here, Chandy said that the Centre had sought certain clarifications over the issue.

"Complete ESAs cannot practically exist in Kerala... Both ESA and non-Ecological Sensitive Villages would co-exist in the 119 villages that are identified as ESAs in the State," he said, while stressing that villages in Kerala are different from other States.

"As for as ESA is concerned, we do not have any problems pertaining to forest and no man's land, which belongs to the Government and does not put for any agricultural use," he stated.

Claiming that the Union Environment has accepted Kerala's revised ESA, he said that the issue of notification of the ESA now lies with the Centre. He added that few states are yet to submit their views on the issue.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Javadekar said that Maharashtra would submit its report in a week's time.

"The meeting was very cordial. We had a good meeting. About Kasturirangan report and Eco Sensitive Zone - Many states have submitted their reports. Gujarat, Goa, Kerala and Karnataka have submitted their report. Maharashtra is also submitting this week. So you will get some news sooner than later," Javadekar said after meeting Chandy.

The Kerala Chief Minister also said that he discussed issues such as climate change with regard to coastal areas, man-animal conflict and pending funds that the State should receive for relocating tribals from thick forests to main land with Javadekar.

On July 31 this year, the Kerala government had submitted a comprehensive report comprising its final views on the Kasturirangan report on Western Ghats to the Centre. The report has a clear picture of ESA and other areas of the Western Ghats in the State.