KOCHI: With the Supreme Court set to consider the Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ) case on Wednesday, Kerala will seek relaxation on the June 3 verdict that made one-km ESZ mandatory around all wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in the country. Kerala has filed an intervention application in the case seeking exemption considering the high population density in the state.
Kerala will not submit the satellite survey map prepared by the Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre as the uploading of structures in the one-km ESZ around protected forests has not been completed. Instead, the proposals in fixing the ESZ submitted to the expert committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) will be placed before the court. These maps were prepared removing all human habitations.
The MoEF had issued final or draft notifications on the ESZ of 23 wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in the state from 2019 to 2021, based on which Kerala had submitted proposals seeking to remove human habitations. These proposals were in the final stage of approval by the expert committee of MoEF when the Supreme Court issued the June 3 order which invalidated the proposals.