The LDF Cabinet on Wednesday decided to amend its March 2019 order that unconditionally transformed a one- kilometre wide stretch around protected areas as ecologically sensitive or buffer zones. The criticism was that the order included even human habitations within the buffer zone.

Till now, both Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and forest minister A K Saseendran had argued that the government had in 2020 itself asked the Centre to exempt from the buffer zone areas with high population density and having government and quasi-government institutions within its fold. It was also said that a proposal to this effect had been submitted to the Centre.

The government has now received legal advice saying that this was not sufficient and that the 2019 order should be promptly amended to exclude populated areas from the buffer zones. The government was told that as long as the 2019 order remained in force, it would harm Kerala's case in the Supreme Court that it wanted all human habitations excluded from the buffer zone.

The SC, while issuing a notification directing states to declare an extent of one kilometre as ESZ around protected areas on June 3, had also said that if states wanted to dilute the ESZ requirement in case of "overwhelming public interest" they could approach it through the Central Empowered Committee and the MoEF. Kerala is planning to do so, and the Cabinet has tasked the Forest Department to go ahead with the legal remedial measures.

After the Supreme Court's June 3 notification that stoked existential fears in high ranges and forest fringes, the 2019 order came under sharp attack. The Congress even alleged that the 2019 order had informed the Supreme Court's June 3 notification.

The government had shot back saying that the UDF government's 2013 order was the problematic piece of policy decision. That order, the government said, had allowed a buffer zone of 0-12 km around protected areas. "Should I tell you which is bigger, one km or 12 kms," forest minister A K Saseendran had asked tauntingly.

The UDF's counter was that the 2013 proposal, though it okayed a 0-12 km buffer zone, had specifically asked that all human habitations close to protected areas should be exempted from the buffer zone norms. The LDF proposal in 2019, on the other hand, approved of a one-kilometre buffer zone for all areas around protected areas, including human habitations.

Opposition leader V D Satheesan has welcomed the Cabinet decision. "We are happy that the government has decided to correct a decision that would have affected lakhs of houses and vast areas of agricultural lands," he said.