Explained: How Kerala has struggled to identify buffer zones around its protected forests

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, in its order on June 3, said national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and such protected forests must have an ESZ of minimum 1-km from their boundaries.

The court said the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MEF & CC) on 9 February, 2011, which have either banned or regulated a bunch of activities within the ESZ, should be strictly adhered to.

In 2011, the environment ministry had issued a set of guidelines, which either completely banned or regulated certain activities in ESZ. The banned activities are mining, running of saw mills, polluting industries, commercial use of fire woods, mega hydel-power projects and manufacturing of hazardous objects. Mining would be allowed only for local use, the guidelines said. The regulated or restricted activities in the ESZ are felling of trees (only with permission from authorities), establishment of hotels and resorts as per approved master plan, drastic change in agricultural systems, commercial use of natural water resources including ground water harvesting, erection of electrical cables with stress on underground cabling, fencing of building premises, widening   of   roads, ban on vehicular   traffic at night. The permissible activities are ongoing agricultural and horticulture practices, rain water harvesting, organic farming and adoption of green technology for all activities.

The proceedings that led to the June 3 SC order originated from a 1995 PIL moved by T N Godavarman Thirumulpad, a native of Nilambur in Kerala’s Malappuram, seeking protection of forest lands in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. Later, the court widened the scope of the petition in such a manner to protect natural resources throughout the country. The petitioner died in 2016, but the petition continued.

Implications for Kerala

The Kerala government does not have a clear picture about how the life and livelihood of people would be impacted by the declaring of the ESZ. After SC verdict, the state has assigned Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre to collect data on all structures, institutions and economic activities within one km from the boundaries of the protected forests.

Opposition Congress has said the verdict would affect one lakh families, 2.50 lakh acres of agricultural land and two dozen townships. Farmers are concerned as inclusion of human settlements with ESZ would hit their life and economic activities.

The state government, meanwhile, has decided to move a modification petition in the Supreme Court on its verdict of June 3. Also, the state advocate general has been asked to explore options to make a law in this regard. The state would also inform the SC about its ESZ proposal pending before the Union Ministry after it was submitted in 2020 and would try to win a nod for it after conveying the situation in Kerala.

ESZ idea and its evolution

It was in 2002 that the national board of wildlife adopted a national wildlife conservation strategy that looked at a buffer zone for activities outside the sanctuaries and national parks. The board backed a 10-km buffer zone.

A month later, in February, the wildlife board adopted the conservation strategy, and the Centre directed all states to list out such areas. Some states raised concern over applicability of 10 km range. In 2005, the wildlife board re-examined the issue and decided that the delineation of the ESZ would have to be site specific and relate to regulation, rather than prohibition, of specific activities.

Several reminders were sent to states to submit the ESZ proposals. But many, including Kerala, did not respond.

Acting on a PIL, the SC intervened in December 2006 and directed all states to submit their proposals for declaration of ESZs. In 2010, the Supreme Court, while considering a separate case related to construction of a park near Okhla bird sanctuary, directed the Centre to formulate guidelines for declaring ESZ.

An expert committee set up by the Union government to frame the guidelines to facilitate the states and UTs for declaration of ESZs identified parameters for the same. Subsequently in February 2011, the ministry directed all states to list out ESZ, within 10 km from the boundaries of the protected forests and furnish proposals for their notation as ESZ, under the Environment Protection Act 1986.

The Kerala ESZ proposal

After the Centre issued the guidelines in 2011, the then Congress government initiated the process for identifying the ESZ. In 2013, the state started the process and submitted its draft proposals to the Union ministry in 2015. The proposal excluded human settlements, irrespective of their vicinity to the protected areas, from the purview of ESZ.

In 2017, the then Kerala chief wildlife warden sought approval for the state’s proposal. Instead, clarifications were sought from the state in the form of maps with uniform colour code, details of flora and fauna and demographic profile of habitations within the ESZ. A template for submission of proposals was given to Kerala. As the LDF government failed to act on the request, the draft notifications, issued by the Centre in 2015, lapsed and the state was asked to give a fresh proposal.

In February 2019, the Kerala government decided to submit a fresh proposal for ESZ.

Accordingly on January 3, 2020, a new draft notification proposal was submitted to the Union government, declaring an extent of one-km from the boundaries of protected forests as a buffer zone.

Existing human settlements were also brought under the purview of the ESZ, which was a dramatic shift from the approach of the previous Congress regime, which had excluded them. The reason cited for the shift in approach was the devastating flood of July-August in 2018. While finalising fresh proposals for ESZ, Kerala viewed that unbridled mining, construction activities had contributed to the floods.

But amid criticism, the LDF government in September 2020 decided to again change its stand on ESZ. It decided that when ESZs are declared, densely populated areas, places with government and quasi-government offices be left out from the limit of the ESZ.

The state approached the Centre with these fresh changes, which have been pending clearance.

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Kerala forests, protected areas

Kerala has 23 protected forest areas, of which 12 are wildlife sanctuaries, 3 bird sanctuaries, five national parks and two tiger reserves.

Kerala’s forest cover, as per data available from 2019-20, is 11,521 square km, which forms 29.65 per cent of the state’s total geographical area.

This ratio of forest to total geographical areas is much higher than the national average of 6.09 per cent. The state’s forest cover has also been going up with an increase of 823 square km from 2017.

After 2016, the LDF Government had recovered 97.13 hectares of forest land.