CM convenes high-level meeting to discuss buffer zone issue
The Hindu
Forest, Revenue and Local Self-Governments Ministers and Chief Secretary to attend
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has convened a high-level meeting on Tuesday to allay mounting public anger at the government’s alleged failure to bolster the State’s pressing case for exempting human habitats from the Supreme Court-proposed ecologically sensitive zone (ESZ) that bans a range of activities within a 1-km radius of protected forests.
The government also urgently needed to take the steam out of the Opposition’s move to capitalise on the growing fear and uncertainty faced by thousands of families living on the extremities of 22 protected forests spread across 115 densely populated panchayats in the State.
It required pacifying the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC), now at the forefront of the brewing anti-government agitation.
The KCBC believed the State-sanctioned satellite survey conducted to identify man-made structures in the proposed buffer zone prioritised conservation over livelihood. It felt the contentious survey “wilfully” left out thousands of spartan homes and “subsistence structures”, chiefly small shops and cattle sheds, in its report.
The KCBC has rejected the survey report on the ground that it did not reflect the ground realities. It has warned the government that the “flawed” declaration would not satisfy the the apex court’s condition that “empirical proof of overwhelming public interest” was essential to justify any reduction or negation of the intended buffer zone.
The KCBC has urged the government to fill the “yawning gaps” in the satellite survey by conducting an exhaustive field verification, “ground trotting”, to the satisfaction of the affected populace.
Pakistan coach Gary Kirsten stated that “not so great decision making” contributed to his side’s defeat to India in the Group-A T20 World Cup clash here on Sunday. The batting unit came apart in the chase, after being well placed at 72 for two. With 48 runs needed from eight overs, Pakistan found a way to panic and lose. “Maybe not so great decision making,” Kirsten said at the post-match press conference, when asked to explain the loss.