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Published Nov 10, 2024 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Nov 10, 2024 | 8:00 AM
ESZ is one of the main topics that heats up the Wayanad Lok Sabha elections
The battle lines are drawn in Wayanad for the 13 November bypoll to the Lok Sabha. Priyanka Gandhi’s campaign machinery is in full steam, even as Sathyan Mokeri of the CPI and Navya Haridas of the BJP are putting up a spirited fight.
The national leaders of the BJP are missing in the battleground as Priyanka wages her first electoral battle to retain the constituency vacated by her brother Rahul Gandhi. However, Narendra Modi’s invisible presence — albeit due to a misinformation campaign — is hard to miss.
Incidentally, the misinformation campaign is not new. It started ever since the Madhav Gadgil Committee on Western Ghats submitted its report. The Kasthurirangan Committee report that followed added fuel to it.
Fake news, as being peddled, has little impact on urban Wayanad but ruffled many feathers in rural areas, especially those abutting the forests. The wrong information being spread often baffles others.
Consider this: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s permission is required to build cattle sheds, houses should be painted green, water tanks should be constructed at home to satiate the wild animals, and lights must be switched off at 6 pm so that the animals would not be disturbed. These all would happen if the areas were designated as Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZs), the rumours said.
Unfortunately, there are takers for these rumours — peddled by vested interests including resorts and mining lobbies, and political parties and religious institutions — as evident from the protests that the forest office at Muthanga has been witnessing.
A forest official blamed the incorrect use of the terms, ‘buffer zone, and ‘ECZ’, for the confusion. A buffer zone is an area that acts as a barrier, separating conflicting entities or forces, such as between human settlements and protected areas. It serves to mitigate potential risks, such as preventing industrial accidents or preserving areas from violence.
An ESZ is specifically intended to protect the ecological balance and biodiversity surrounding a protected area. It functions as a “cushion” or transitional area, minimising the adverse effects of human activities on fragile ecosystems.
While certain activities in an ESZ are regulated, they are not outright banned, except for practices like commercial mining, stone quarrying, and large-scale hydroelectric projects.
These terms confused the people in areas adjoining forests, and a Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change’s (MoEFCC) draft notification designating a 99.5 square kilometre ESZ around the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) added to the confusion.
Protesters expressed fear that the ESZ will stifle development, as much as 29,291 acres of private land on the fringes of the sanctuary would be affected, preventing any future development in the area.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
