THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government will soon submit the details sought by the Union government to revise the Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) in the state. Different panchayats across the state have proposed amendments to the draft proposal on ESA. The final report will be submitted before the Union government after incorporating necessary amendments, said the Chief Minister’s Office.
In 2018, the government identified 8,656.46 sq km in 92 villages to be earmarked as ESA villages. As per the decision, human-inhabited areas and plantations were excluded. As per the revised plan, ESAs will be confined to vested forests and reserve forests only.
Later, on the district-level, monitoring committees had conducted inspections and data collection. “Following this, the extent of ESA was fixed as 8,711.89 sq km in 98 villages. In view of the amendments, the Union government was alerted that the final report would be submitted after incorporating the changes,” said CMO.
Meanwhile the final draft notification issued by the Union government in July 2024 has termed the total extent of Ecologically Sensitive Areas in the state as 9,993.7 sq km in 131 villages. The CMO further pointed out that there were certain misunderstandings about Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) and Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZ).
However, ESZ pertains to buffer areas marked by the forests departments around Protected Forest Areas like National Parks and Wildlife Reserves. The curbs in ESAs and ESZ are different, said the statement from the CMO.