Orthodox church seeks exclusion of inhabited areas from Western Ghats ESA
A representative body of a Kerala-based Christian denomination has demanded that inhabited areas and agricultural/plantation land be excluded from the proposed Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), confining the ESA strictly to forest land.
The demand comes amid the Union government's latest (2026) draft ESA notification, which proposes to bring 56,825 sq km of the Western Ghats across six states under ESA restrictions.
Within this, the notification proposes roughly 9,993.7 sq km for Kerala, comprising about 9,107 sq km of forest land and 886.7 sq km of non-forest land — smaller than the 13,108 sq km Kerala area recommended earlier by the Kasturirangan-led High-Level Working Group.
The draft is open for public objections and suggestions before final notification, and its implementation requires concurrence from all six Western Ghats states.
Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) — Legal Basis and Purpose
An Ecologically Sensitive Area (also called an Eco-Sensitive Zone in some notifications) is a designation used to regulate — not necessarily prohibit — developmental and industrial activity in ecologically fragile regions, without displacing existing habitation.
Key Details
- ESAs are notified under Section 3(2)(v) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, which empowers the Central Government to restrict areas where industries, operations, or processes may not be carried out, or may be carried out only under safeguards. The term "Eco-Sensitive Zone" itself does not appear in the Act — it derives from this residuary power plus the National Wildlife Action Plan (2002–2016), which recommended a 10-km buffer around protected areas.
- ESA notification does not automatically ban all activity; it typically bars new mining, red-category polluting industries, and large thermal power projects, while regulating (not prohibiting) activities like agriculture and eco-tourism.
- The Western Ghats span six states — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu — and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 2012) recognised as one of the world's eight "hottest hotspots" of biological diversity.
The demand to confine the ESA to forest land only, rather than the wider landscape-level approach, reflects a recurring tension in how much of the "cultural landscape" of the Western Ghats (human settlements, farms, plantations) should fall under regulatory restriction versus be carved out.
Gadgil Committee (2011) vs. Kasturirangan Committee (2013)
Two expert panels have shaped the Western Ghats ESA debate with sharply different approaches to how much of the region should be protected and how.
Key Details
- The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (Gadgil Committee, 2011), chaired by Madhav Gadgil, recommended declaring the entire Western Ghats (about 64% of the region, using a landscape-level ecological approach) as an ESA, with three graded zones (ESZ 1, 2, 3) of decreasing restriction.
- The High-Level Working Group (Kasturirangan Committee, 2013), chaired by K. Kasturirangan, scaled this back to roughly 37% of the Western Ghats (about 59,940 sq km), recommending exclusion of "cultural landscape" — inhabited regions, farmland, and plantations — from ESA restrictions, since these cover an estimated 58.44% of the Western Ghats.
- Kerala's current government-proposed ESA figure of ~9,993.7 sq km is smaller than even the Kasturirangan-recommended 13,108 sq km for the state, reflecting continued paring-down after state-level physical verification.
- The current (2026) draft is reported as the seventh such draft notification issued since 2013 — repeated redrafting has followed opposition from farmers, plantation owners, and local bodies in each round.
The demand for exclusion of inhabited areas aligns with — and seeks to go further than — the Kasturirangan approach, asking that even the reduced Kerala ESA figure be pruned to forest-only land.
Western Ghats: Geography and Ecological Significance
The Western Ghats are a continuous mountain range running roughly 1,600 km along India's western coast, from the Tapi River in Gujarat/Maharashtra to Kanniyakumari in Tamil Nadu, forming the catchment for peninsular rivers such as the Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri.
The debate over "inhabited vs forest-only" ESA boundaries in Kerala sits directly at the intersection of disaster-risk reduction (post-landslide policy) and livelihood/land-rights concerns of hill communities.
- 2026 Western Ghats ESA draft notification: 56,825 sq km across six states (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu), issued 27 July 2026.
- Kerala's proposed ESA area: ~9,993.7 sq km (9,107 sq km forest + 886.7 sq km non-forest).
- Kasturirangan Committee's recommended Kerala ESA area (2013): 13,108 sq km.
- Gadgil Committee (2011) recommended ESA coverage: ~64% of Western Ghats; Kasturirangan Committee (2013) scaled this to ~37%.
- Cultural landscape (habitation, agriculture, plantations) covers an estimated 58.44% of the Western Ghats per the Kasturirangan report.
- Western Ghats: UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2012; spans six states; ~1,600 km length.
- Legal basis for ESA notification: Section 3(2)(v), Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.