Playing with fear in Idukki

In Kerala, paranoia can win you votes and end political careers. Parliamentarian Joice George of the LDF had the last laugh a year ago after whipping up fears that the Kasturirangan report would ruin the lives of people in the Western Ghats region. George cruised to victory by a margin of 50,000 votes.

Former MP P T Thomas – who supported the Gadgil report – was side-lined by the Congress under pressure from the Idukki diocese, which owns huge tracts of land in the high ranges. Joice is now resurrecting the ghost of Kasturirangan report to enhance the chance of LDF candidate K Francis George, who has the support of the high range committee.

The committee, opposing both reports, has upped the ante alleging that young men and women were forced to remain unmarried as land value here had dipped. George has demanded that all Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESAs) demarcated by Kasturirangan report in Idukki should be exempted.

“The Congress is cheating poor farmers. They had promised to remove 48 villages from ESA list, but nothing happened,” he said. The LDF manifesto, which has many green initiatives, is silent on the issue to safeguard its votes in this region. “Both reports attempted to bring a framework to conserve the remaining buffer zones in Western Ghats region. But political parties are powerless to take a stand on the issue,” said Harish Vasudevan of One Earth, One life, an NGO.

The much-diluted Kasturirangan report was envisaged following a hue and cry by many states, including Kerala, which said Gadgil’s report would impact the livelihood of people in the hilly regions. The Kasturirangan report allows townships up to a size of 50 hectares and construction up to 20,000 sq m. Both reports had banned polluting red-category industries, mining and quarrying in ESAs.

“The false propaganda that one cannot build houses or farming will be stopped is wrong. The people behind this campaign are those who want to gobble up forest land and begin quarrying in buffer zones,” Vasudevan said.

The ESA classification had influenced rubber plantation owners and the quarry lobby to seek exemptions. The government then appointed a three-member panel under state biodiversity board chief Oommen V Oommen that verified all villages demarcated as ESAs.

The panel exempted 3,115 sq km of the total 13,108 sq km that was classified as ESA by the Kasturirangan report. During physical verification, plantation estates that were earmarked as ESAs were later exempted.

“Idukki has large tracts of grasslands and numerous streams that originate from hills outside the core forest areas. The ESA concept is to protect these green zones. If we destroy buffer zones, the forest will become vulnerable. Political parties wanting to win polls are doing a great disservice to voters by not making people aware of the basic facts,” said Dr Latha Anantha, director of River Research Centre.