BENGALURU: Chief Minister Basvaraj Bommai on Saturday requested the Central Government not to implement the Kasturirangan report in the fragile Western Ghats (WG).
“Declaring the Western Ghats as an ecologically sensitive zone will adversely affect the livelihood of people in the region. The Karnataka government and the people living in the region are opposed to implementation of the Kasturirangan report,” he said while participating in a virtual meeting, chaired by Union Minister for Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, and Labour, Bhupender Yadav, on Saturday.
The CM also asserted that the state cabinet had opposed the implementation of the Kasturirangan report. He added that this decision was taken after exhaustive discussions with people of the Western Ghat region. “Karnataka has the distinction of being one of the states with extensive forest cover. Our government has taken extreme care to protect its biodiversity.
People of the region have adopted agriculture and horticultural activities in an eco-friendly manner. Priority has been accorded for environment protection under the Forest Protection Act. Bringing in another law will affect the livelihood of locals,” Bommai said. The CM also explained that the Kasturirangan report was prepared based on satellite images, while the ground reality is different. Reacting to this, the Union minister assured the state that MoEFCC officers will visit the state before taking the final decision.
Serving and retired forest officers have said that there is no need to implement either the Madhav Gadgil report or the Kasturirangan report. The Gadgil report was submitted to the government in 2011 and, after much debate, it was dropped. The government then sought another report and the Kasturirangan report was tabled in 2012-13. But, after facing severe criticism from all quarters, the state had decided to put it on hold.
Retired forest officer B K Singh said, “The forest department laws and rules are very stringent and accurate. If the government implements them in the right spirit, nothing else is needed. The Kasturirangan committee report did not state anything that was not known. The report did not give any real conservation issues and did not flag them. A forest staffer need not be told to ban mining in forests, to book cases on poachers and nab culprits. Leave protection and conservation to them and implement the existing forest laws.”