Kasturirangan report: Karnataka CM instructs Forest Department not to issue eviction notices to traditional cultivators
The Karnataka state government held a public consultation in Tirthahalli (Shivamogga district) to hear concerns from residents, farmers, and environmental groups on the Kasturirangan report's Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) proposal for the Western Ghats
The state government directed the Forest Department not to issue eviction notices to traditional cultivators over alleged encroachments while the consultation process is ongoing
Officials stated the government wants to understand ground-level concerns before conveying its final position to the Centre on the report's implementation, including a possible physical survey of ESA-proposed areas
Shivamogga district alone accounts for 447 of the 1,449 villages identified under the Kasturirangan report's ESA boundary across the Western Ghats states, making it a focal point of the consultations
The Kasturirangan Report (2013) and Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Areas
The High-Level Working Group on Western Ghats, chaired by Dr. K. Kasturirangan, was constituted in 2012 after the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change found the preceding Gadgil Committee report too restrictive to implement. The Kasturirangan report (submitted 2013) proposed a narrower Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) footprint with development-friendly carve-outs, and its draft notifications have been repeatedly extended and contested since.
Key Details
- Kasturirangan report recommends ESA status for approximately 37% of the Western Ghats' total area (about 60,000 sq km), against the Gadgil Committee's recommendation of roughly 64% (nearly the entire range)
- It replaced Gadgil's three-tier Ecologically Sensitive Zone (ESZ 1/2/3) gradation with a simpler "natural landscape" (ESA) vs "cultural landscape" (non-ESA) binary, explicitly excluding inhabited settlements and existing plantations from ESA restrictions
- Spans six states: Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Maharashtra, and Gujarat; identifies 1,499 villages (later revised figures vary, commonly cited around 1,449-1,576) across these states as falling within or near the ESA
- Official draft notifications under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 have been issued and re-issued multiple times since 2014 without final notification, due to sustained state and local opposition
The Tirthahalli consultation and Shivamogga's outsized share of identified villages (447 of 1,449) illustrate why Karnataka, more than most Western Ghats states, has resisted full implementation and sought local consultation before finalising its position for the Centre.
Gadgil Committee (2011) vs Kasturirangan Committee (2013) — Contrasting Approaches
The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel under Prof. Madhav Gadgil (2010-11) and the subsequent Kasturirangan-led High-Level Working Group represent two distinct philosophies on Western Ghats conservation — participatory, zone-graded protection versus a narrower, development-accommodating ESA.
Key Details
- Gadgil report (2011): recommended the entire Western Ghats as an ESA, divided into three Ecologically Sensitive Zones with descending levels of restriction, and emphasised bottom-up, gram sabha-led decision-making on permissible activities
- Kasturirangan report (2013): reduced the ESA footprint to roughly 37%, dropped the zonal gradation in favour of the existing "red/orange/green" industry classification for regulating activities, and excluded already-inhabited and agricultural/plantation land from restrictions
- Both reports were reactions to the same underlying concern — unregulated mining, quarrying, and construction degrading a UNESCO World Heritage Site and global biodiversity hotspot — but differed sharply on how much local economic activity to restrict
The consultation format used in Tirthahalli — direct engagement with affected farmers before finalising a state position — echoes the participatory principle the Gadgil report championed, even though the underlying policy being discussed is the more restrictive-light Kasturirangan framework.
Forest Rights Act, 2006 and Protections Against Eviction
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 recognises and vests forest rights in Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have resided in and depended on forest land for generations, and — read with the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 — protects such occupants from eviction without due process of rights recognition and, where applicable, rehabilitation.
Key Details
- Eligibility: continuous forest residence/dependence for at least three generations (75 years) prior to December 13, 2005, for "other traditional forest dwellers"; Scheduled Tribes qualify without the 75-year test if primarily forest-dependent
- Recognised rights include individual rights to land under cultivation/habitation (up to 4 hectares) and community rights to minor forest produce, grazing, and access to traditional resources
- Implementation gap: in Karnataka, of roughly 2.81 lakh claims filed statewide, around 1.8 lakh Scheduled Tribe and traditional forest dweller claims have been rejected, commonly for lack of documentary proof of generational residence
- The Kasturirangan report itself does not call for eviction of existing residents or farmers within the ESA; it explicitly permits repair, reconstruction, and continued occupation of existing ancestral homes
The state's instruction against issuing eviction notices addresses the gap between the Kasturirangan report's own no-eviction stance and separate, ongoing state-level forest encroachment enforcement — a distinction the consultations are meant to clarify for affected cultivators.
- Kasturirangan Committee constituted: 2012; report submitted: 2013 (after the Gadgil Committee report, 2011)
- ESA area recommended: ~37% of Western Ghats (Kasturirangan) vs ~64% (Gadgil)
- Villages identified under ESA purview: 1,449 across six states; Shivamogga district (Karnataka) alone accounts for 447
- Western Ghats spans Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Maharashtra, and Gujarat; a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world's eight "hottest hotspots" of biodiversity
- Forest Rights Act, 2006 eligibility threshold for "other traditional forest dwellers": 75 years (three generations) of forest residence prior to December 13, 2005
- Karnataka FRA claims: approximately 1.8 lakh of 2.81 lakh claims rejected as of 2021