Three States Seek to Shrink of Eco-Sensitive Areas in the Western Ghats

June 13, 2024

Recently, three out of the six states where the Centre has proposed ‘Eco-sensitive areas (ESA)’ to safeguard the Western Ghats have requested a reduction in the size of these ESAs.

Eco-Sensitive Areas (ESA)

The National Environment Policy (2006) defined Eco-Sensitive Zones “as areas/zones with identified environmental resources having incomparable values which require special attention for their conservation” because of their landscape, wildlife, biodiversity, historical, and natural values.

Designation: Eco-Sensitive Areas (ESAs) are designated within a 10-kilometer radius around Protected Areas, National Parks, and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
Notified by: The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) notifies them under the Environment Protection Act of 1986.
Objective: The primary objective is to regulate specific activities near these areas to mitigate their adverse effects on the delicate ecosystem surrounding the protected zones.

About Western Ghats

About: The Western Ghats are a mountain range that runs almost parallel to India’s western coast. They span 1,600 kilometres from the mouth of the Tapti River near the Gujarat-Maharashtra border to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.
It covers six states: Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra, and Gujarat.
Biodiversity: The Western Ghats harbor over 30% of India’s plant, fish, herpetofauna, bird, and mammal species.
- Additionally, it boasts the unique shola ecosystem, characterised by montane grasslands interspersed with patches of evergreen forest.
Resources: The Western Ghats are abundant in certain areas of iron, manganese, and bauxite ores.
Plantations: This region supports numerous plantation crops and is a significant source of timber.
- It also contains many wild relatives of cultivated plants, such as pepper, cardamom, mango, jackfruit, and plantain.

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