Thiruvananthapuram: The state government might have dumped the exercise to create ecologically sensitive zones around national parks and sanctuaries in the state as directed by the Supreme Court but the Centre’s move to implement Kasturirangan report seems like poetic justice.
“Almost all the 123 villages branded as ecologically sensitive in the Kasturirangan panel report are within the areas we had wanted within the ecologically sensitive zones,” said Congress MLA V.D. Satheeshan.
But Satheeshan, who headed one of the three committees formed to interact with people and evolve a consensus on the extent of the ESZ around the state’s protected areas, is surprised. (The other two committees were headed by T.N. Prathapan MLA and N. Samsudheen MLA).
“We had put forward more number of restrictions in these areas than Kasturirangan has now recommended and still we could arrive at an easy consensus,” Satheeshan said. Kasturirangan has laid down five regulations in areas classified as ecologically sensitive.
“In our case we had recommended at least 15 more restrictions than the five recommended by Kasturirangan,” Satheeshan said. One such regulation was the prohibition on constructing buildings with more than three storeys.
“In fact it was the people in Idukki who said there was no need for a three-storey building in a predominantly forest area and insisted that we keep the ceiling at two-storeys,” Satheeshan said.
