Karnataka’s legislature has unanimously backed a high-level committee and village-level surveys to examine alleged shortcomings in the Kasturirangan report before the Centre takes a final decision on declaring areas of the Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive.
The resolution was approved separately by both Houses after discussions on the report. Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar responded in the Legislative Assembly, while Forest Minister Ramalinga Reddy gave the government’s reply in the Legislative Council. The government said the seventh draft notification issued by the Centre cannot be accepted in its present form.
The proposed committee will be headed by a retired judge and include officials from the Revenue and Forest departments, representatives of farmers, industry and business, environmental and forest experts, and specialists from academic institutions. Shivakumar said the committee would conduct physical surveys to distinguish scientifically between ecologically sensitive areas, forests, agricultural land, horticultural plantations and inhabited areas.
The government also plans to establish committees at the gram panchayat level to assist the state-level panel. The surveys are expected to map houses, schools, horticultural land, drinking-water infrastructure and electricity poles on a village-wise and survey-number basis. Karnataka will ask the Centre to provide one year to complete the exercise and recommend amendments.
Shivakumar criticised what he described as a satellite-based assessment that was not supported by joint physical surveys or survey-number-level verification. He said forests, agricultural land and plantations can appear similarly green in satellite images, creating the risk of inaccurate classification. He also argued that declaring an entire village ecologically sensitive because a portion of it contains forest would not be scientifically appropriate.
According to the government’s position presented in the legislature, such classification could affect house construction, property inheritance, farming, plantations, roads, schools, hospitals and drinking-water pipelines. The government said the concerns of farmers, plantation workers, tribal communities and local families who have lived in the region for generations must be addressed, while also maintaining that conservation of the Western Ghats, biodiversity, river origins and wildlife remains a priority.
Members from the Opposition and the ruling party suggested that the committee should be led by a subject expert or scientist rather than a retired judge. They argued that the process must account for the relationship between local communities and the environment, not only the legal dimensions of the dispute. Reddy said the suggestion would be considered.
The resolutions call for only notified forest areas to be included within the ecologically sensitive zone, while also taking into account unauthorised cultivation regularisation claims, forest rights, deemed forests, land grants, appeals and court cases. They seek separate physical identification of boundaries through expert-led survey-number measurements and guidelines for alternative livelihoods and financial assistance for farmers and workers in affected areas.
The state said it has raised objections to draft notifications concerning ecologically sensitive areas since 2004 and communicated Cabinet decisions on the issue to the Centre in 2021, 2022 and 2024. It also said six earlier draft notifications had been rejected. Karnataka now plans to send an all-party delegation to the Centre and has urged the state’s Members of Parliament to present a united position.
The state resolution asks the Centre not to finalise the notification until Karnataka submits its survey findings and the two governments hold detailed discussions. The next steps will depend on the composition of the committee, the start of village-level surveys and the Centre’s response to the request for additional time.
