New Delhi: The Kasthuri Rangan draft notification has been extended again. The decision comes amid ongoing disputes over environmentally sensitive areas. The deadline for the draft notification has been extended till July next year.
The Center again extended the deadline for the draft notification without accepting Kerala’s objection. An area of 13108 square kilometers in 123 villages of Kerala has been included in the list of environmentally sensitive areas by the Kasthurirangan Committee.
Accepting Kerala’s protest against it, the Center issued a new draft notification in December 2018, reducing the environmentally sensitive area to 9993.7 square kilometers according to the Oommen v Oommen committee report. The position of the state government is to reduce the area by 880 square kilometers if the residential areas are to be completely avoided.
