SC order on buffer zone puts Kerala in a quandary; here's why

After the turbulence created by the Gadgil Committee report, Kerala is once again facing turmoil over the Supreme Court’s order mandating an Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) in one-kilometre radius around protected forest areas, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks. Kerala has forest areas in 13 out of its 14 districts, the only exception being Alappuzha, which is nourished with backwaters and wetlands.

The unrest in districts like Wayanadu, Idukki and Pathanamthitta, which have over 80 per cent forest cover, makes it a top priority for the government to find a solution. Farmers’ organisations and political parties have come out in protest against the SC’s direction in fixing the buffer zone. The Kerala government has no option but to move the Supreme Court to get the residential areas excluded from the buffer zone rule.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that the state would file a modification petition in the Supreme Court. The government wants the liberty to decide the buffer zone based on human inhabitation of each place in a range of zero to one kilometre, to protect the residential areas and commercial establishments that exist.

A hard-to-follow rule

Having the third-highest population density among the large states, a no-habitation rule within one-kilometre radius would be practically impossible for Kerala to implement. According to the 2019-20 report, the state has 11,523 sq km forest cover which constitutes 30 per cent of the state’s total geographical area. Kerala’s forest cover is 6 per cent higher than the national average. The data also debunks the myth of deforestation in the state. There is a substantial increase in the forest cover over a period of ten years.

Also read: Centre to move SC on issue of ESZ around protected forests: Union MoS

According to the report of the committee headed by Dr Kasturi Rangan, the forest cover in Kerala was 11,309 sq km between 2010- 2014. The data provided by the Forest Survey of India also ratifies this trend: the 2019 report of the Forest Survey of India states that between 2017 and 2019, Kerala’s forest cover increased by 823 sq km.

The state has 12 wildlife sanctuaries, three bird sanctuaries, five national parks and two tiger reserves that fall under the category of Protected Areas which require having a buffer zone within a one-kilometre radius. Most of these areas are surrounded by habitations which have agriculture, livestock, plantations and tourism activities. “Kerala’s case must be treated differently. No fast and hard rule can be applied in terms of differentiating between the forest and human habitation,” says Gopakumar Mukundan, visiting Fellow at the Centre for Socio-Economic and Environment Studies in Kochi.

Kerala is yet to ascertain the actual area of human habitation to be affected by the new rule. The government has authorised Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre (KSREC) to gather information on the number of villages that would fall within the prescribed buffer zone area. KSREC, an agency under the finance department, will collect the details of houses, hospitals, educational institutions, commercial establishments, plantations, worship places and agriculture land. “We will be able to understand the gravity of the impact of the buffer zone rule only after the completion of this study. We have completed a sample study and are waiting for the nod from the government to finalise the methodology,” Nizamudeen A, KSREC director told The Federal.

The fear of displacement

“The economy created by settler farmers in Kerala is one of the backbones of the state. Environmentalists who argue solely for buffer zones and forests always ignore their genuine concerns,” says Gopakumar Mukundan. Settler farmers are those who migrated from Travancore to the hilly terrains of Idukki and Wayanad in the early twentieth century. Settlers, who were predominantly Syrian Christians, discovered the farming potential of the high ranges of Kerala. In districts such as Idukki, Wayanadu and Pathanamthitta, settler farmers have a substantial population and have emerged as a strong political group that often helps the Congress in Kerala. No party can ignore the strength of settler farmers who have earned the negotiation power with both the fronts — LDF and UDF.

Whenever there’s a debate regarding the preservation and conservation of forest, settler community puts on stiff resistance. Large-scale protests have been held since 2013 whenever there has been a discussion about the implementation of the report of the Madhav Gadgil Committee on the Western Ghats. Often the Catholic Church takes up the lead.

A delegation of the Kerala Catholic Bishop Council (KCBC) met the chief minister and demanded immediate intervention in the backdrop of the Supreme Court ruling on Buffer Zone. The church urged the government to file a review petition and to seek all possible remedies to rescue Kerala from the buffer zone rule.

“People will be forced to flee from their homeland. There will be a lot of restrictions upon farming and the construction of houses within buffer zones. Ordinary people will be affected,” said KCBC in a press statement.

The dos and don’ts in buffer zones

As per the answer to a starred question tabled in the Assembly on June 30, 2022, by A K Saseendran, the minister for forest and wildlife, there are a set of restrictions to be applied in buffer zones. Commercial mining, timber mills, polluting industries, production of hazardous material, big dams, cable cars and strip lines as part of tourism would be banned in buffer zones.

Also read: Delhi to redevelop four city forests. Know what the plan entails

Then there are activities that are categorised as regulated and not banned: Hotels and resorts, cutting of woods, fundamental changes in the style of agriculture, laying electric cables, commercial use of water, fencing around hotels and lodges, air pollution through vehicles, putting sign boards, bringing alien animals and birds, night travel.

“This would literally kill Kerala’s tourism industry,” says Gopakumar Mukundan adding, “Tourism brings 10 per cent of GDP which is as important as agriculture. The characteristics of Kerala’s human inhabitation, economy and preservation of the environment require a different set of parameters.”

There are many like Gopakumar who agree with the concerns raised by settler farmers that their day-to-day life would be affected by the restrictions imposed.