Inhabited Areas, Agricultural Land Must Be Excluded From Ecologically Sensitive Areas: Orthodox Church

Thiruvananthapuram: The seventh draft notification on the Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) will further suffocate the lives of people in the hilly regions who are already struggling due to human-wildlife conflict, the Orthodox Church said in a statement.

The church said inhabited areas and agricultural land should be excluded from the ESA. Environmental protection should be carried out by taking people into confidence, it said. Unfortunately, many notifications are keeping people in the dark, the statement added.

The church said restrictions on construction activities in the hilly regions could lead to a situation in which people would have to seek permission from the Forest and Environment departments for almost every activity in the future. The ESA notification would affect not only the hilly regions but the development of the entire state, it said.

The period for submitting complaints and expressing concerns over the notification should be extended, the church demanded. It also called for the expert committee to visit the hilly regions and understand the ground realities.

The hill communities are not opposed to environmental protection, the statement said. The issue can be resolved if the ESA is limited to forest areas, it added.

The state government should convince the Central government of Kerala's special circumstances, said Metropolitan Yuhanon Mar Dioscoros, president of the media wing of the Orthodox Church.