The Karnataka government on Thursday said people living in 1,533 villages in the Western Ghats region, coming under the eco-sensitive zone as classified by Dr. K. Kasthurirangan report, would not be forcibly evicted.
Replying to a debate in the Assembly on the report, Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar said the State would explore the option of impleading before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to make known its stand on the report.
“I will talk to both the Forest and Law Ministers to explore the option,” he said.
Seeking to allay fears that there would be mass eviction of people from the villages if the report is implemented by the end of this year, Mr. Kumar said the Centre was yet to issue the final notification.
The State had not only filed objections to all the four draft notifications on implementation of the report, but also written to the Centre making it clear that it would not accept implementation of the report in its present form, he said.
Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, in his letter to the Union Minister for Environment and Forests, had also sought that the State should be informed about any new draft notification to be issued in this regard before taking a final call on the report, he said.
Earlier, all the MLAs from the Western Ghats region expressed concern citing media reports that the NGT had asked the Centre to implement the report from December 30.
