The Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) has dubbed as unfortunate the Supreme Court directive that national parks and wildlife sanctuaries must have Eco Sensitive Zones (ESZ) of minimum one km from the demarcated boundary of a protected forest.
The verdict will turn the life of settler farmers and people living on the forest fringes nightmarish. It will effectively turn four lakh acres around the 24 wildlife sanctuaries in the State into buffer zones, leaving about 1.50 lakh affected families in the lurch.
The stringent enforcement of rules in the buffer zones will force the affected farmers to leave without any compensation. The KCBC said the verdict reflects the failure of the government in convincing the court the demands being made by farmers over the past more than a decade.
