Western Ghats: Expert panel to visit Goa over demand for exclusion of some villages from eco-sensitive zone

This would be the committee’s first field visit after the expiry of the 60-day window. Once finalised, villages marked as ESA will see a complete ban on mining, quarrying and sand mining as well as phasing out of existing mines in five years.

“The state government has sought exclusion of around 21 villages, all of them from Sattari taluka in North Goa district. We have received information about the panel’s foreseeable visit,” said a reliable source from the state environment department.

The July 2024 draft notification on Western Ghats marked 108 villages as ESA in the verdant state that is home to rich riverine as well as coastal biodiversity. These villages are spread over an area of 1,461 sq km, with 63 located in Sattari taluka alone and the rest are in Canacona, Dharbandora, Sanguem talukas in South Goa district.

Meanwhile, a seven-member panel appointed by the state government is already examining some of the views submitted by villagers across the state, seeking retention of their villages in the ESA list. Loliem and Poinguinim from Canacona taluka are two such villages that have submitted representations to the Centre to retain their villagers as ESA, a source from the state’s environment department added.

Unlike the previous iterations of the draft notification on Western Ghats, the latest one has for the first time specified that there could eventually be separate final notifications demarcating ESAs. This could be done either state-wise in a phased manner, or through a combined single notification.

The demarcation of the nearly 60,000 sqkm ESA has been pending for 13 years since the United Progressive Alliance first tasked an expert panel led by senior ecologist Madhav Gadgil to study the issue of protecting Western Ghats.

The Gadgil panel submitted a report recommending that the entire Ghats region be tagged as ecologically sensitive and creation of an overarching ecological authority to regulate development. However, that report was never adopted and a panel led by space scientist K Kasturirangan was later formed to demarcate ESA’s using the Gadgil panel report as the foundation.

The Kasturirangan panel first demarcated 56,825.7 sq km as ESA.