Several hundred residents of Amboori and Kallikkad grama panchayats participated in a mass protest organised in front of the Forest headquarters here on Tuesday against the draft notification to declare an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) around the Neyyar wildlife sanctuary.
Former Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, who inaugurated the demonstration, said the notification issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), if implemented, would drive out numerous families who settled in the region many decades ago. He demanded that human-inhabited and agricultural areas be excluded from the ESZ.
Presiding over the agitation, Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] district secretary Anavoor Nagappan said the State government would stand by the farming community under any circumstance. He added the government would adopt necessary steps to urge the Centre to confine the proposed zone to uninhabited areas.
