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Western Ghats ESA: Urgent Call for Stronger Eco-Safeguards
26 Sep
Summary
- Karnataka organizations urge finalized ecological safeguards for Western Ghats.
- Fifteen years of delays worsen ecological realities in the Western Ghats.
- Calls for stricter rules on development and inclusion of landslide-prone areas.
A coalition of Karnataka organizations has submitted a joint appeal to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the state government, urging the finalization of the seventh draft notification for the Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA). These groups highlighted that six previous draft notifications have expired since 2011, allowing ecological conditions to deteriorate significantly over the past 15 years.
The submitted report emphasizes the necessity of implementing robust ecological safeguards and correcting the ESA boundaries. It advocates for prohibiting large hydropower, pumped-storage projects, and major linear infrastructure within the ESA. Furthermore, it calls for environmental assessments for large renewable energy projects and protection for steep, landslide-prone slopes.
The organizations also stressed that meaningful public participation requires the notification to be available in local languages, noting that while they provided a Kannada version, an official government translation is still necessary. Preliminary GIS analysis has identified discrepancies in the stated ESA area and errors in village names, with some critical areas like landslide-prone slopes and headwater streams being excluded, necessitating their inclusion before finalization.
