Western Ghats: Full report of Kasturirangan committee moef.nic.in moef.nic.in/assets/HLWG-Report-Part-1.pdf moef.nic.in/assets/HLWG-Report-Part-2.pdf Quite interesting...DEVIL is in the details and clearly lies in the execution of these recommendations! HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE READ THE REPORT? Recommend, an interesting read! The Western Ghats (WG) or the Sahyadri is the majestic mountain range on the fringes of the west coast of India. It is one among the seven great mountain ranges in the country and is next only to the Himalayas. Its landscape is unique in terms of geology, biology and ecology. The mountain range extends over a distance of 1500-1600km from Tapti river in the north to Kanyakumari in the south with an average elevation of more than 600m and traverses through Six States viz.Gujarat,Maharashtra,Goa,Karnataka,Kerala and TamilNadu. Its geology and geomorphology coupled with high rainfall makes the Western Ghats as one of the most ecologically diversified landscapes. It is this ecological diversity of WG that supports: (i) a wide range of forest types ranging from tropical wet evergreen forests to grasslands, (ii) some 4000 species of flowering plants with high degree of endemism and (iii) rich fauna with endemism ranging from 11% to 78% among different groups. Consequently, Western Ghats constitutes not only one of the hotspots of biodiversity in the world, but also one among world’s eight hottest hotspots. The Western Ghats is the home for about 50 million people belonging to the Six States of the Country. It is the source of water for the entire Peninsular India, and also influences the monsoons. The life supporting and biodiversity rich ecosystems of Western Ghats are threatened today due to habitat pressures. Realizing the need to protect and rejuvenate the ecology of and for sustainable development in Western Ghats, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) constituted a Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP). The mandate of WGEEP was to demarcate ecologically sensitive zones and suggest measures to conserve, protect and rejuvenate the ecology of Western Ghats region. Taking into account the comments and suggestions made by different stakeholders including State Governments and Central Ministries on WGEEP Report, the MoEF constituted a High Level Working Group (HLWG) - order dated 17th August 2012 - to suggest an all-round and holistic approach for sustainable and equitable development while keeping in focus the preservation and conservation of ecological systems in Western Ghats. (eg. (b) ensuring the rights, needs and developmental aspirations of local and indigenous people, tribals, forest dwellers and most disadvantaged sections of the local communities while balancing equitable economic and social growth with sustainable development and environmental integrity; ) During its tenure HLWG held 10 meetings,undertook four field visits and had interactions with State Governments and stakeholdersOne of the most important meetings that HLWG had at the individual level was with Prof. Madhav Gadgil, Chairman of WGEEP.In Kerala, HLWG had discussions with Hon’ble Chief Minister, Shri Oommen Chandy, his Cabinet colleagues, Chief Secretary and Secretaries of relevant Departments and Chairperson of State Biodiversity Board. The HLWG also met elected representatives of Parliament and State Legislature. After extensive discussions with experts, the Working Group also defined the extent of Western Ghats; and as per HLWG’s definition, the Western Ghats region spreads over an area of 1,64,280km2 and extends from North to South over a distance of 1500 km traversing Six States. Our analysis also revealed that already close to 60 per cent of the Western Ghats region is under cultural landscape -human dominated land use of settlements, agriculture and plantations (other than forest plantations) - and only 41 per cent of the land area can be currently classified as natural landscape. Of the natural landscape, the biologically rich area, with some measure of contiguity is roughly 37 per cent of the Western Ghats which is about 60,000 km2. We have identified this 37% of natural landscape having very high and iii high biological richness and low fragmentation and low population density and contain Protected Areas (PAs), World Heritage Sites (WHSs) and Tiger and Elephant corridors as Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) and recommend it to MoEF for notification. The Working Group also took note of the environmentally friendly practices in coffee plantations in Kodagu and cardamom plantations in Idduki and Wayanad where integration of natural landscapes with human settlements exists. Indeed, it is because of this harmony between people and nature in the Western Ghats, the HLWG recommended policies to incentivize green growth that promotes sustainable and equitable development across the Western Ghats region. The future lies in working on green growth strategies that build on the natural endowment of the Western Ghats region to create a vibrant economy, while preserving, conserving and rejuvenating the ecology. The work of WGEEP and HLWGs own work can help to highlight the need for understanding this complex system in its variety of manifestations as we seek for maximum possible internal self - consistency between competing demands of development, conservation and local livelihoods. This is an area of research that can be carried out for several years involving so me of the most brilliant minds. The HLWG had contacted the Governments of the 6 States of Western Ghats to seek their specific views on the various recommendations made in the WGEEP report and their implications. The States not only responded to these enquiries with quality analytical inputs but also in most of the cases facilitated meetings of the working Group with the concerned State Government officials who made excellent resentations besides insightful discussions. Further, the HLWG had the privilege of meeting with Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Goa and Kerala along with their Cabinet colleagues and elected representatives (MPs and MLAs belonging to different parties). This aspect of interaction with the State Governments, their elected representatives, functionaries and officials, provided the most valuable inputs for the Working Group to draft its recommendations. The observations and discussions presented in different chapters of this Report clearly indicate unambiguously that the eco-system of Western -Ghats is in need of urgent attention and action. Out of the estimated 1,64,280 km2 of the Western-Ghats area, the natural landscape constitutes only 41 per cent. The area identified as ecologically sensitive is about 37 per cent i.e., about 90 % of the natural landscape. It is against this backdrop of a fast dwindling unique ecosystem, that we make these recommendations. Needless to emphasize, there is a great sense of urgency, in the implementation of the tasks arising out of these recommendations,....In making some of the general and sectoral recommendations, we are also aware that many of these are already inbuilt into the present strategies of the respective States. In repeating such recommendations, we are only underscoring the imperatives of implementing such recommendations in letter and spirit. To facilitate sustainable development in the WG region, which is inhabited by about 50 million people, the non ESA comprising mostly cultural landscape is also demarcated. HLWG recommends that the Central government should immediately notify the ESA area, demarcated by HLWG in public interest. The need for urgent action is evident. In this notified area, development restrictions as recommended in this report will apply. MoEF should put the ESA map in the public domain, which will enable scrutiny and transparency in decisions ...All ‘Red’ category industries should be strictly banned. As the list of industries categorized as ‘orange’ includes many activities like food and fruit processing, there will not be a complete prohibition on this category. But all efforts should be made to promote industries with low environmental impacts Building and construction projects of 20,000m2 and above should not be allowed.Townships and area development projects should be prohibited. All other infrastructure and development projects/schemes should be subject to environment clearance under Category ‘A’ projects under EIA Notification 2006. All development projects, located within 10 km of the Western Ghats ESA and requiring Environment Clearance (EC), shall be regulated as per the provisions of the EIA Notification 2006. HLWG recommends a framework for governance and regulation of ESA, which draws on current regulatory institutions for decision-making, but simultaneously, strengthens the data monitoring systems and the participation and involvement of local communities in decision - making. Existing regulatory institutions and processes for environment and forest clearances and project monitoring would need to be greatly strengthened for the governance framework to be enforced and monitored effectively. The villages falling under ESA will be involved in decision making on the future projects. All projects will require prior-informed consent and no -objection from the Gram Sabha of the village. The provision for prior informed consent under the Forest Rights Act will also be strictly enforced. The current rules of timber transit, which do not incentivize forest production on private lands and community forestlands, should be reviewed and revised. The Forest Rights Act’s categorization of minor forest produce, including bamboo should be promoted to build forest-based local economies. In order to promote sustainable tourism, HLWG recommends the following: (a) Existing regulatory provisions to assess environmental impact of tourism projects must be strengthened. (b) The tourism policy for Ecologically Sensitive Area of the Western Ghats must provide local community ownership and benefits. (c) All tourism hotspots in the Ecologically Sensitive Area should be monitored for compliance with environmental conditions and development restrictions and assessed in terms of impact. HLWG is of the view that while the importance of the proposed Athirappilly hydropower project for meeting the peaking power requirements of the State cannot be disputed, there is still uncertainty about ecological flow available in the riverine stretch, which has a dam at a short distance upstream of the proposed project.It recommends that given the increased variability due to unpredictable monsoon, the project must be revaluated in terms of the generation of energy and whether the plant load factor expected in the project makes it viable against the loss of local populations of some species. Based on this revaluation and collection of data on ecological flow, the Government of Kerala, could take forward the proposal, if it so desireswith the Ministry of Environment and Forests. This report is organized in two volumes. Volume I is the main Report and Volume II contains the Annexures to the main Report. The main Report has eight Chapters. The first chapter details the uniqueness of Western Ghats, the background that led to the constitution of HLWG by the Government and its ToRs, working of the HLWG and scope of the Report. Chapter 2 covers the evaluations of Comments / Observations of State Governments, Central Ministries and Stakeholders and provides statistical analysis of the responses received on WGEEP Report including the questionnaire sent to State Governments and Central Ministries. It also highlights the issues of concern communicated by the Six States and Twelve Central Ministries Chapter 5 deals with the need for scientific, objective and practical strategy for delimiting Ecologically Sensitive Areas in the light of comments received on the shortcomings of the method of zoning in WGEEP Report. It explains the geospatial methodologies followed by HLWG and the procedures followed in delimitation of Western Ghats region into Natural and Cultural landscapes. It explains the methods of delineation of ESA within the natural landscape with village as a unit and at a fine resolution of 24 m, including the overlaying of PAs, WHSs and Wildlife corridors on the ESA. The results obtained based on the methodology adopted by HLWG are analyzed for 188 talukas in terms of the area covered under ESAs and number of villages falling under ESA. Maps of Western Ghats showing vegetation and land cover classes, natural and cultural landscapes, biodiversity richness, fragmentation and human population density and ESA, and Maps of each of Six States showing natural and cultural landscapes and ESAs are also provided. Chapter 6 deals with the strategies proposed by HLWG for sustainable and inclusive development with environmental integrity in Western Ghats region.The Chapter also outlines recommendations for sector level planning and development restrictions in ESAs for major sectors such as mining, energy, industry, and infrastructure. It also explains the mechanisms and financial arrangement for incentivizing green growth and the challenges of having world heritage tag for 39 sites in Western Ghats region. It also recommends a frame work for governance and regulation, with a key recommendation on the setting up a “ Decision Support and Monitoring Centre for Western Ghats” ...Read on!
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 16:14:45 +0000
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