Kasturirangan report on Western Ghats threatens livelihoods: Karnataka CM

Why in the News

The Karnataka Chief Minister has told the Legislative Assembly that implementing the Kasturirangan Committee report could threaten the livelihoods of people in 10 districts of the State. He reaffirmed the State government’s commitment to protecting the livelihoods of farmers and residents of the Western Ghats. The statement comes against a Union government instruction that Karnataka convey its decision on the report by September 27. The tension the State has placed on record is between a central conservation instrument covering an identified ecologically sensitive area and the settled land use of the villages inside it.

What is the Kasturirangan Committee report?

1. What it is: It is the report of the High Level Working Group on the Western Ghats, submitted in 2013, which reviewed the earlier Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel report.
2. Core recommendation: It recommended that about 37 per cent of the Western Ghats be designated an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), in place of the earlier panel’s proposal to treat the entire range as ecologically sensitive in three graded zones.
3. What designation does: Within a notified ESA, activities such as mining, quarrying, thermal power plants and large construction are prohibited or tightly restricted.

What is the scale of the footprint in Karnataka?

1. Area identified: The report identifies 20,668 sq km of Karnataka’s Western Ghats region as ecologically sensitive.
2. Settlements covered: That area covers 1,449 villages across the State.
3. Districts affected: The Chief Minister placed the livelihood risk across 10 districts of Karnataka.
4. Hydrological stake: More than six rivers originate in and flow through the Western Ghats, which is the basis on which the State argues the ecology cannot be treated as a local matter alone.

What is the State government’s stated position?

1. Livelihood commitment: The State government has reaffirmed its commitment to protecting the livelihoods of farmers and residents of the Western Ghats.
2. Effect on the ground: The report’s recommendations have created an atmosphere of fear among farmers, as recorded on the floor of the Assembly.
3. Objection to method: The State’s stated objection is that the proposal of unscientific measures has caused widespread anxiety regarding people’s livelihoods.
4. Consultation before the debate: The Chief Minister toured the coastal and Malnad regions that the report would affect, and held meetings with people there before the Assembly session.

What are the affected residents demanding?

1. Rejection of the report: Farmers have sought outright rejection of the Kasturirangan report rather than modification of its boundaries.
2. A fresh review: They have demanded that a new committee be constituted to examine the question afresh.
3. Removal of the classification: They have urged that the Ecologically Sensitive Zone classification be scrapped for the affected areas.
4. An alternative template: They have asked that the Keralam model be adopted in place of the classification the report proposes.

Challenges to implementing the Kasturirangan report in Karnataka

1. Village level exclusion, not plot level: The report works on whole village boundaries, so an entire revenue village enters the restricted category even where only part of it is ecologically sensitive. Eg. 1,449 villages in Karnataka fall inside the identified area on this basis.
   The Fix: Move the notification to a cadastral survey of actual land use within each village, so restrictions attach to the sensitive parcels rather than to the administrative unit.
2. Repeated draft notifications with no closure: The Union government has issued successive draft ESA notifications without finalising one, which leaves both conservation and land transactions in suspension. Eg. The draft Western Ghats ESA notification has been reissued several times since 2013 without a final notification.
   The Fix: Fix a statutory outer date for finalisation after which the last draft takes effect, so the uncertainty itself stops being the operative regime.
3. States hold differing positions on the same range: The Western Ghats run through six States, and a notification any one State refuses leaves the ecosystem regulated in fragments. Eg. Karnataka is being asked to convey a decision while farmers ask that the Keralam model be adopted instead.
   The Fix: Settle the boundary through the Western Ghats Ecology Authority route with a binding inter State mechanism, rather than State by State consent to a central draft.
4. Existing extractive activity is already entrenched: Mining and quarrying leases predating any notification create vested interests that resist designation and continue operating through litigation. Eg. Illegal iron ore mining in Bellary and quarrying across the Malnad belt has run through prolonged litigation.
   The Fix: Publish a lease wise inventory inside the identified area with a dated phase out schedule and a rehabilitation package for the workforce.
5. No compensation for restricted land use: A household whose permitted land use narrows receives nothing, so conservation is financed by the people least able to bear it. Eg. Plantation and areca growing households across the coastal and Malnad districts face restrictions on construction and land conversion.
   The Fix: Route a payment for ecosystem services transfer to gram panchayats inside the ESA, funded from the Compensatory Afforestation Fund, so protection carries an income rather than only a prohibition.

Conclusion

Karnataka has placed a livelihood objection on the record while the Union government waits for a formal decision from the State. The disagreement is not about whether the Western Ghats need protection but about whether a boundary drawn on village units can be reconciled with the land use of the people inside it. Nothing in the State’s position offers an alternative conservation instrument, and nothing in the report offers the residents a compensating entitlement. The next milestone is the decision Karnataka conveys to the Centre and the Union government’s response to a refusal.

Back2Basics: Western Ghats

1. Designation: The Western Ghats are recognised as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots and 39 sites across the range were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2012.
2. Extent: The range runs about 1,600 km along the western edge of peninsular India through Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
3. Hydrological role: It is the catchment for the major peninsular river systems, including the Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri.
4. Expert review history: The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, chaired by Madhav Gadgil, reported in 2011, and the High Level Working Group chaired by K. Kasturirangan reviewed it in 2013.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2016] Gadgil Committee Report’ and ‘Kasturirangan Committee Report’, sometimes seen in the news, are related to (a) constitutional reforms (b) Ganga Action Plan (c) linking of rivers (d) protection of Western Ghats | Answer: (d)”