Kerala Agriculture Minister T Siddique announced on Sunday that the state is preparing a detailed reply to the Centre’s draft Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area notification. Issued on July 25, the draft covers about 9,993.7 square kilometres across 131 villages in Kerala. Speaking in Kozhikode, Siddique stated that inhabited settlements and cultivated farmland should remain outside the final ESA boundary. Officials aim to completely remove more than thirty villages from the list and carve residential and farm parcels out of the remaining villages.
Chief Minister VD Satheesan has consulted with the Environment, Agriculture, Revenue, and Forest ministers alongside senior officials, and also convened a meeting where farmers’ concerns and scientific inputs were placed before the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Committee. Revenue Minister AP Anilkumar assured the public that no decision will harm livelihoods and stated that New Delhi has shown a constructive attitude in talks.
The draft has caused anxiety in high-range belts where coffee, rubber, cardamom, and homestead farming exist near forest edges, with local groups fearing building limits and tighter land-use rules. The sixty-day window for objections closes on September 24, and Kerala intends to file a comprehensive response before that deadline.