THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government is exploring the possibility of filing a review petition in the Supreme Court in the wake of the apex court mandating a one-kilometre ecosensitive zone around protected forests.Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters on Monday the government move aims to ensure inhabited areas are excluded from the proposed ecosensitive zones.
“The state had already urged the Centre to exclude inhabited areas from ecosensitive zones. Such interventions will continue,” Pinarayi said. The government will take all steps to ensure that people’s concerns do not turn into protests, he added. Pinarayi said the Central notification on ecosensitive zones was issued in 2011 when the second UPA government was in power.
It had proposed restrictions on a 10-kilometre area around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. In 2013, the then UDF government had submitted a proposal to declare 88.21 sqkm in Wayanad as an ecosensitive zone. In 2020, the LDF government also recommended that the same extent of land be classified that way. “The state government’s proposal, that an ecosensitive zone could be in the range of zero to one kilometre, was aimed at fully protecting inhabited areas.
The state government is of the view that inhabited areas should be taken into account while deciding on ecosensitive zones,” chief minister said. Pinarayi reminded that had the LDF government not submitted such a proposal before the June 3 verdict of the S upreme Court, a 10-km ecosensitive zone, as per the 2011 notification, would have become applicable in the state.