The provisions of the draft notification to designate the region around the Neyyar and Peppara wildlife sanctuaries as Eco-sensitive Zone (ESZ) has not gone down well with the local bodies.
Terming many of the restrictions as unreasonable, the affected villages fear these could impact infrastructure development especially within 1 km of the proposed zone.
In view of the mounting protests, Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran has called a meeting of people’s representatives on April 8 to gauge public opinion and evolve the State’s response to the draft document released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Valsala Raju, president of the Amboori grama panchayat, said no provision that adversely impacts normal life and the people’s livelihoods will be accepted. Pointing out that the civic body will be ‘worst affected’ if the notification is approved in its current form, she said nine of the 13 wards in the panchayat will become part of the proposed zone.
“The local community must be provided unfettered rights over human-inhabited areas. Diminishing the area of normal activity in the highly-dense region could lead to socio-economic impacts. The panchayat will oppose any attempt to designate such areas as forest land irrespective of political affiliation,” she said.
The proposed ESZ will be spread across the villages of Kallikadu, Amboori, Vazhichal, Mannoorkara and Vithura, the first three of which are part of the Parassala Assembly constituency.
Even while welcoming the prohibition that will be imposed on mining, stone quarrying and pollution-control industries, Parassala MLA, C.K. Hareendran said the proposed restrictions on constructions cannot be implemented in toto.
He felt many of the proposed regulations could impact endeavours intended to improve connectivity such as the hill highway project that is crucial for the development of far-flung areas and improving the quality of life there.
Mr. Hareendran claimed the Centre had factored in a recommendation that had been made by the Oommen Chandy government to declare all forest areas as Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) under the Kasturirangan panel report on Western Ghats.
“The government had then erred by failing to exclude the human-inhabited areas from the report. While the previous LDF government proposed defining non-core areas in the Western Ghats where the regulations could be relaxed, the suggestion was ignored,” he said.
According to official sources, the government hoped to get the wildlife sanctuaries designated as vested forests to confine the boundaries within which regulations could be imposed. The Centre recently granted approval to notify the Choolannur Peafowl Sanctuary in Palakkad and the Peechi-Vazhani wildlife sanctuary in Thrissur as vested forest areas.
