THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala government launched the field survey to verify and cross-check people’s complaints regarding buffer zones on Friday. Meanwhile, over 14,000 complaints pointing out issues with the zones reached the forest department within 24 hours of the maps being uploaded.
Panchayat-level officials are carrying out the field survey. “It is being done to identify the places that have not been included in the ESZ map. The SC wants the satellite map to identify whether there are constructions in a particular region. Panchayat officials will physically check and upload the photos to the map to prove that there are constructions,” said a source.
Meanwhile, it is not just the newly-uploaded maps, but the forest department’s ignorance that has added to people’s confusion. The department already had a map that marked the areas excluded from buffer zones. Sources said the confusion could have been avoided had the department uploaded this map.
“The map was prepared by the forest department to submit before the Supreme Court. However, after the SC pronounced its verdict on June 3, the department kept it aside. Uploading it would have prevented the confusion,” an official told TNIE. The map was first prepared under the Oommen Chandy-led government when the SC asked Kerala to submit the buffer zone report.
Most complaints related to exclusion of property
The government had included the reserve forest outside wildlife sanctuaries and national parks as the buffer zone, thereby avoiding inhabited areas. However, the Union ministry of environment and forests did not accept it. The SC then asked states to declare 1km as the buffer zone and submit maps of the inhabited areas. By the time the LDF government modified the map, it was June 3 and the SC pronounced its verdict.
Meanwhile, a majority of the over 14,000 proforma received by the forest department are related to the exclusion of their property, farm lands and constructions from the satellite map published by the government.
Staff shortage
The forest department is facing a new challenge in the form of staff shortage to compile the data received. An officer said there are not enough people in the department to process the proformas and send them to the local self-government institutions concerned for physical verification. The forest department has sent a request to the government for more staff.