"The earlier office memorandum of November 16 regarding 'in principle' acceptance of the high level working group report on Western Ghats stands withdrawn", said an order issued by the ministry of environment and forest.
Though the ministry had time and again clarified that the previous order did not prohibit farming and plantation in those areas, it has now withdrawn it altogether in order to give it a second shot after consulting state governments.
The move comes after a series of protests against the Centre's decision in the past one month. The Kerala government had been most vocal against the decision, saying it will affect the livelihood of local population.
The environment ministry, which came out with a list of villages in six states which were included in the Ecologically Sensitive Zone (ESZ) for making them a no-go area for certain activities, has now decided to fine tune the boundary of the Zone after taking inputs from state governments.
Though the protest over the Centre's move to earmark ESZ had started the moment it gave its nod to the Kasturirangan panel report last month, the environment ministry had initially resisted it. The pressure from Kerala government had, however, started building up more after the Congress poor show in recent assembly polls.
Although the ministry had clarified that the decision would not affect the farmers in the ESZ, the clarification did not pacify the agitators in Kerala. The reversal of its previous order is seen as the Centre's move not to touch any controversial issue which may cost it heavily in the coming general election.
The last month's order which earmarked 60,000 sq km area of the Western Ghats across six states as ESA had prohibited activities like mining, quarrying and setting up thermal power plants and other high polluting industries "with immediate effect".
Building and construction projects of 20,000 sq meters area and above and township and area development projects with an area of 50 hectare and above or with built up area of 1,50,000 sq meters and above were also supposed to be prohibited in these areas.
The order had, however, clarified that it would not affect the hydro power and wind energy projects in those areas. These activities will be allowed subject to "applicable regulations".
The ministry in its notification, issued in November, had annexed a complete list of state-wise, district-wise and taluka-wise villages in the entire ESA and put the details on its website while asking the six states - Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu - to implement the order strictly.
"In case of any violation, appropriate legal action under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 will be taken", said the November order.
The ESA - roughly 37% (59,940 sq km) of the Western Ghats - has been earmarked on the basis of the recommendation of a high-level working committee, under the chairmanship of K Kasturirangan (Planning Commission member), which had submitted its report to the government on April 15.
Though any new or expansion project was supposed to be completely banned in those notified villages across the six states with immediate effect, the applications for getting various environmental clearances which were submitted before April 17 were, however, be processed as per earlier rules.
April 17 was fixed as a cut-off date because the committee had made its report, earmarking those areas as ESZ, public on that date.
The panel had identified the more or less contiguous area (roughly 37% of the Western Ghats) as natural landscape having high biological richness, low forest fragmentation and low population density. It also found that this area also has World Heritage Sites and Tiger and Elephant corridors, making it to be a fit case for earmarked as ecologically sensitive area.
Referring to the recommendation, the ministry's through its order had asked the states to follow the "non-tolerance" policy towards prohibiting "highly interventionist and environmentally damaging activities" as Western Ghats has been under unprecedented threats due to mining and urbanization.
It specifically flagged the Red category (high polluting) of industries like thermal power, oil refinery, petrochemical, cement, sugar, pesticide, zinc smelting, leather and integrated steel plants among others -- which are part of the list of polluting industries prepared by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and pollution control boards of most of the states - for imposing the complete ban.
Besides being a global biodiversity hotspot and treasure trove of varieties of flora and fauna, the Western Ghats - which extends over a distance of approximately 1,500 km and traverses through six states - is the origin of Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery and a number of other rivers.
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