‘We are not going to yield’: Kerala bishop ups the ante against government over buffer zones around protected forests

On Monday, addressing a farmers’ protest at a village in Kozhikode district, Bishop Remigiose Inchananiyil said that they would not surrender before the law. “For those (farmers) who have sweated it out in the soil, have no reservations to shed blood. The farmers in the hills had not surrendered before malaria in the past. Hence, we are not going to yield before the government on the buffer zone issue,” he said.

In 2013, Bishop Inchananiyil had made a controversial remark during a Church-backed protest against the Kasturirangan committee report on the Western Ghats, threatening a repeat of Jallianwala Bagh if the report was implemented in the state.

The Catholic Church has organised farmers in the hilly regions of the state against a recent satellite survey report, identifying the structures and habitats that would fall within 1 km of the ESZ from the boundaries of 22 protected forest tracts in the state. The report, which was published last week, was slammed by Opposition parties and farmer organisations as one that did not reflect the ground realities in the proposed buffer zones.

The Congress is also joining the protest on Tuesday with a massive rally at Koorachundu village in Kozhikode, one of the affected areas in the state. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala will address the protest meeting.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has convened a high-level meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue. Earlier, the government had directed all 115 village panchayats, which fall under the purview of the proposed buffer zones, to start help desks to enable people to report about the structures missed in the satellite survey.