Protests over eco-sensitive zones | The other side of the sanctuary Premium

The Supreme Court’s directive to mark a 1 km aerial distance from the boundaries of all protected areas as ecologically sensitive has led to protests in Kerala. K.S. Sudhi, Mithosh Joseph and Sandeep Vellaram report on the issue and the anxieties among farmers living on the fringes of protected areas

George Thomas, a nonagenarian settler-farmer from Muthukad, a verdant agricultural village located 55 km away from Kozhikode, is living in fear of the future these days. The events unfolding in the State over the Supreme Court’s direction that every protected forest, national park and wildlife sanctuary in the country should have a mandatory eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of 1 km starting from their demarcated boundaries have caused him great angst. The 10-acre land he holds was practically barren when his parents purchased it from a local landlord in the early 1940s. He and his children toiled on the land, located at an aerial distance of about a kilometre from the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary, a protected area in Kozhikode district, and converted it into farmland. Thomas, who recently retired from active farming following heart ailments, fears that the government will take away the holding and render him landless once the ESZ regime comes into effect.

Farmers living on the fringes of other protected areas harbour similar fears. When they voiced their concerns in mid-December, the Church lent them support. Bishop Remigiose Maria Paul Inchananiyil, a high priest of the powerful Syro-Malabar Church, declared at Koorachundu, 13 km away from Thomas’s property, that the Church would not mind taking extreme measures to protect the interests of the settlers. The fairly large crowd that had gathered to listen to him raised slogans against the government. The protests were a throwback to the restiveness triggered by the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) led by Madhav Gadgil to conserve the fragile ecology of the mountain chain between 2012 and 2014.

Bishop Inchananiyil heads the Thamarassery Diocese. Thamarassery has a significant population of Christians and farmers. The area was the hub of protests in north Kerala against the WGEEP report. Violent protesters, who were inflamed by rumours that their farmlands would be taken back, had then set fire to a forest office and a police vehicle. The ESZ demarcation move, too, suddenly became an emotive issue for hundreds of farmers in the region who have successfully built their lives and settlements on forest fringes, battling inclement weather and wild beasts.

The lead players during both these protests have remained the same — the Catholic Church and the settler-farmers. The Kerala Independent Farmers Association, a pressure group of farmers formed in 2020, is also at the forefront of mobilising public opinion this time.

During the 2012-14 protests, the Left Front, comprising the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, and a few minor constituents, which were then in the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, supported the settlers and the High Range Samrakshana Samithi — an organisation spearheaded by the Church — and reaped political dividends. This time, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), which is in the Opposition, has lent support to the agitation, pushing the government to work overtime to calm the protesters.

Also read | Kerala may seek permission to retain its original ESZ proposals

Idukki in central Kerala, which was on the boil in the wake of the Gadgil report, has also witnessed vociferous protests against ESZ demarcation. Various sections of society in the hill district have participated in public meetings, rallies, and door-to-door campaigns against the buffer zone regime. Several farmers fear that the regulations that may accompany the ESZ delineation would make farming impossible. They worry that they could be gradually evicted from their holdings.