RTI success: Ministry of environment & forests uploads the damning Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel Report
May 29, 2012
On 23rd May, Moneylife wrote on how a Kerala citizen was denied access to Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel Report (WGEEP). The Central Information Commission and the Delhi High Court ordered the ministry to make it public. It has now been uploaded on its site
Vinita Deshmukh
Just when one wondered whether the ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) would turn to the Supreme Court after the Delhi
High Court on 17th May, upheld the order of the Central Information Commissioner (CIC) to make the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel Report (WGEEP) public, it came as a pleasant surprise that the RTI (Right to Information) route taken by a Kerala citizen to access this report bore fruit when the ministry promptly uploaded it on the website.
However, perhaps to keep the political bosses happy, the MoEF authorities have put a disclaimer on its websitewww.moef.nic.instating: “The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel report has not been formally accepted by the ministry and that the report is still being analyzed and considered by the ministry.” The reason is obvious: The WGEEP report submitted by the 13-member panel headed by noted Pune-based ecological expert Madhav Gadgil has damned the construction of big dams; the ongoing mining activities; the devastation of chemical industries on the fragile environment of Western Ghats that comprise 1,29,000 odd km stretching over six states (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat.).
What’s going to hurt the powerful developmental lobbies are the stringent recommendations made by the WGEEP in terms of making all the 142 talukas that come under the Western Ghats, into Environmental Sensitive Zones (ESZs) of three categories—ESZ I, ESZ II and ESZ III as per order of fragility. This translates into: “Regions of highest sensitivity or Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1 (ESZ1); Regions of high sensitivity or ESZ2; and Regions of moderate sensitivity or ESZ3... A number of specific proposals received by the panel from individual Gram Panchayats as well as NGOs from different parts of the Western Ghats are referred to as Ecologically Sensitive Localities (ESL).”
WGEEP recommends that no new dams based on large-scale storage be permitted in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1 as defined by the panel. Thus, the controversial Athirappilly and Gundia Hydel Project of Kerala and Karnataka respectively fall into the most sensitive ESZI category and WGEEP has recommended that the projects “should not be accorded environmental clearance.”
Similarly, for Goa, the WGEEP recommends “an indefinite moratorium on new environmental clearances for mining in Ecologically Sensitive Zones 1 and 2, phasing out of mining in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1 by 2016 and continuation of existing mining in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 2 under strict regulation with an effective system of social audit.”
The WGEEP has also cautioned about the environmental stress due to mining and chemical industries on the coastal plains of Maharashtra’s districts of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg which fall outside the purview of the Western Ghats but were partially studied by the team. On the basis of this, it recommends that the mining, power production and polluting industries in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts should have “appropriate course of further development.”
For these districts, the panel recommends “an indefinite moratorium on new environmental clearances for mining in Ecologically Sensitive Zones 1 and 2, phasing out of mining in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1 by 2016 and continuation of existing mining in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 2 under strict regulation with an effective system of social audit.”
“It also recommends that in Ecologically Sensitive Zones 1 and 2, no new polluting (red and orange category) industries, which would include coal-based power plants, should be permitted to be established; the existing red and orange category industries should be asked to switch to zero pollution by 2016, again with an effective system of social audit.”
The WGEEP suggests that the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa should ‘immediately’ undertake the study of “various development activities in these tracts, ideally in conjunction with Raigad district of Maharashtra and the state of Goa.”
The discomfort factor for powers that be across the six states is that, for all these three ESZs, the WGEEP has sternly recommended “large scale public consultations” before any project is undertaken. The panel report states: “In these zones, the panel recommends that development activity needs to be decided through a participatory process involving the gram sabhas” and broad guidelines have been also given to “extensive consultations with officials, experts, civil society groups and citizens at large.”
Noting a severe lacuna in the “deficit in environmental governance all over the Western Ghats tract” the WGEEP panel states it is very impressed with participation of locals, citizens and citizen groups in helping to preserve the Western Ghats environment in various places. The report observes: “The panel is impressed both by levels of environmental awareness and commitment of citizens towards the cause of the environment, and their helplessness in the face of their marginalization in the current system of governance. The panel urges the ministry of environment and forests to take a number of critical steps to involve citizens.”
Hence it suggests that: “The panel urges the ministry of environment and forests to take a number of critical steps to involve citizens. These would include: pro-active and sympathetic implementation of the provisions of the Community Forest Resources of the Forest Rights Act, establishment of fully empowered Biodiversity Management Committees in all local bodies” and various commendable programmes undertaken by different local self governments.
Predictably, the WGEEP report is not to the liking of the political and bureaucratic bosses as most of the times the so-called developmental projects are aimed towards an ‘influential’ instead for the good of the people at large.
The MoEF has invited the suggestions/objections of stakeholders’ comments/views are invited within 45 days from today (23rd March) on the following emails:[email protected], [email protected]. The comments/views may also be sent by fax/mail.
These issues with the approval of the Competent Authority.
(Dr. Amit Love)
Deputy Director Telephone: 011-24362827 Telefax: 011-24364594
(Vinita Deshmukh is the editor of Life 365 (www.life365.in). She is also the consulting editor of Moneylife, an RTI activist and convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting which she won twice in 1998 and 2005 and the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book “To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of a Braveheart - Ashok Kamte” with Vinita Kamte. She can be reached at [email protected])
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