The Karnataka government on Thursday told the Legislative Assembly that it would reject the latest draft notification issued by the Centre proposing the Eco-Sensitive Area (ESA) that would cover a 20,668 square kilometre area spread across 1,449 villages in the State.

Forest, Environment and Ecology Minister Ramalinga Reddy announced the decision to reject the latest draft issued on July 27, 2026, after members cutting across party affiliations in the Assembly described it as “a death knell” for farmers and people of the Western Ghats.

Dating back to 2013

The Minister explained to the House that the high-level committee led by scientist K. Kasthurirangan, which had been constituted by the Centre to recommend measures to protect the Ecologically Sensitive Western Ghats, had submitted its report in 2013. In the report, it was recommended that 56,000 square km of area spread across six States, including 20,668 square km of Karnataka, be declared as ESA.

Based on such a report, the Union Ministry of Environment, Ecology and Forestry had issued six draft notifications seeking to declare the ESA. However, the seventh draft notification had now been issued, as the earlier draft had lapsed without being finalised.

Mr. Reddy said the draft notification had banned activities that affect the environment, such as mining, quarrying, sand mining, construction activities, and development of townships in the ESA, subject to a certain limit.

Districts covered

The proposed ESA in Karnataka covered 10 districts — Mysuru, Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Hassan, Chamarajanagar, Shivamogga, Kodagu, Belagavi, and Chikkamagaluru. A total of 1,449 villages, coming under 39 taluks of these districts, had been identified as covering ESA, he said.

The Minister pointed out that there was a 60-day deadline for States to file objections to the draft notification from its date of publication.

Seeking to allay the immediate fears of people from the Western Ghats region, Mr. Reddy said there was no need to evict anyone from the ESA area, as the draft notification had not specifically banned activities like farming. The daily life of people in those areas would not be affected, he maintained.

Cabinet stand

He said with respect to the earlier drafts, the State Cabinet had conveyed to the Centre its stand of rejecting them whenever such draft notifications had been issued. This stand had been taken since the ESA identified by the Kasthurirangan report/draft notification was within the areas that had already been declared as reserved forests by the State, notified forest or Ecologically Sensitive Zones. Imposing further restrictions in these areas would affect conservation activities too, he noted.

While stating that the latest draft was being examined at the government level, the Minister declared that the government would inform the Centre about rejecting it.

Published - August 20, 2026 09:27 pm IST