Maha includes 2,092 villages in Western Ghats eco-sensitive area

The Maharashtra government on Thursday included more villages in its proposed final Western Ghats eco-sensitive area (ESA) notification, but has excluded previously identified villages falling in wildlife corridors, sanctuary buffer areas and near tiger reserves.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray submitted the proposal for Maharashtra during a videoconference with Union minister for environment, forest and climate change Prakash Jawadekar on Thursday. “After the ESA for the Western Ghats is announced, curbs will be imposed on certain activities like hydropower projects, certain industries, mining, thermal power plants and large-scale constructions will be prohibited,” the CM’S Office tweeted.

On October 3, the Centre had proposed the draft ESA across 56,825 sq km spanning across six states, covering 37% of the Western Ghats. Of this, 17,340 sq km was marked in Maharashtra, covering 2,133 villages.

The state’s final proposal requests the Centre to include 2,092 of 2,133 villages or 15,359 sq km of the originally proposed 17,340 sq km, thereby excluding 11.4% of the draft ESA area, said state forest minister Sanjay Rathod. “From 2,133 villages, we requested the exclusion of 388 that fall in areas with high industrial and mining potential. However, we also requested the Centre to add 347 more villages that are falling within and around wildlife sanctuaries or protected zones that need to be safeguarded, and were left out in the draft,” said Rathod.

“We requested the Centre to support all 2,092 villages with additional funds since development will be restricted after ESA declaration,” he said.the minister said the Centre’s final nod was still awaited.

Thackeray said, “Our priority is the environment while achieving development. We want consistency to be maintained in the eco-sensitive zones in the area.”