Kerala rejects Western Ghats report, seeks PM's intervention

Kerala today termed as "impractical to implement" the suggestions made by an expert panel on Western Ghats and sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention in the matter.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said he has requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to direct the environment ministry to "consider the anxieties expressed" by the state and to leave the matter to be decided and implemented by the state government.

"The environment ministry has been requested to do away with the proposed Western Ghats Ecology Authority, for the state government to take appropriate conservation measures on its own under the existing legislations and notifications under Environment (Protection) Act," Chandy said.

Madhav Gadgil-led Western Ghats Ecology Experts Panel has made recommendations for 'zonation' of the Western Ghats and adjoining land areas depending on ecological parameters, and for the formation of the Western Ghats Ecology Authority at national level to regulate activities in the respective zones.

"The proposed zonation uniformly applicable for all the six Western Ghats states is detrimental to the interests of the state. Though the exact boundaries of each zone have not been fixed by the panel, the tentative recommendations would make development or even human activities unable in certain areas where the width of the land is less," he said.

Chandy said the issue was debated in the Kerala Assembly wherein the state government has conveyed "its dissent to the impracticable recommendations in the report", and has declared setting up of an expert committee to examine the panel report in the context of the objections raised.