Kerala to Press for Limiting Western Ghats ESA to 98 Villages

Kerala is set to reiterate its demand that the Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) in its Western Ghats region be confined to 98 villages covering 8,590.69 sq km, with the window for filing objections to the Centre's notification closing on September 24, 2026.

The State's objection, which seeks special treatment and categorisation, also calls for limiting the ESA to forest land and leased forest plantations. The proposals are expected to be placed before the State Cabinet on September 23.

The Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change reissued the draft ESA notification for the Western Ghats — the seventh such exercise in a decade — reviving a controversy that has persisted since the Madhav Gadgil-led Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel report. The 60-day public objection period ends on September 24. Apprehension over possible restrictions on various activities has triggered protests and resentment in several ESA villages across the State.

Conservationists, however, describe the protests as the work of vested interests and argue strongly against diluting the norms. They contend that the conservation regime should be strengthened, given the Ghats' role in sustaining the lives and ecology of at least six States, including Kerala.

Kerala intends to convince the Union government that the total ESA extent in the State was miscalculated. The Centre had sought clarification on why the area was reduced to 8,590.69 sq km and 98 villages from the 9,993.7 sq km and 131 villages submitted earlier. The State will advocate excluding human habitations from the ESA's purview.

It is also expected to cite increased forest cover as recorded in Forest Survey of India annual reports, a sustainable tiger population indicated by the tiger census, and various legal regimes for forest and ecological protection to support its case.

Kerala will further argue that the Cardamom Hill Reserve in Idukki should be kept out of the ESA and treated as a cultural landscape where human settlements have existed since the early 1930s. Several grama panchayats in Idukki, which has 23 villages under the ESA, have passed resolutions against the classification. The district has been the epicentre of public protests since the WGEEP report.

The State will also seek exemptions from the Red Category industrial classification, which would be banned within the ESA. It wants pumped storage facilities used for power generation, dairy units, incinerators, and diesel generators of 5 kV and above excluded from the Red Category, arguing they are essential for residents of the ESA.