Thiruvananthapuram: The State Government on Wednesday extended the tenure of the five-member expert committee, formed to study the impact of buffer zones around protected forest areas, by two months. The new deadline is February 28, 2023.

Earlier, the panel was expected to submit its final report by December 30, 2022.

The panel chaired by former Chief of the Calcutta High Court Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan, was formed in September this year to study and record details of houses, commercial establishments and other structures that exist in the 1-km buffer zones that surround wildlife sanctuaries and national parks.

The committee had urged the public to send in their complaints, concerns and suggestions over the determination of buffer zone around the 22 protected forest areas that include inhabited regions, through email or post.

Even as the last date to file complaints against the draft map of the Ecologically Sensitive Areas (buffer zones) around protected forests, including National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries, is fast approaching, public likely to be displaced over the major move to safeguard the environment continue to be anxious as the authorities are yet to address the concerns. The last date to submit complaints is January 7, 2023.

The manual inspection of lands for determining the exact areas of human habitations falling within the buffer zones has not begun in most of the panchayats.

The public will not be able to obtain precise information about inhabited areas without verifying the survey numbers.

Errors in the newly published map, updated later
Errors had crept into buffer zone's new map, which was published with survey numbers on Wednesday, as well. Apparently, properties with same survey numbers were mentioned both within and outside of the buffer zone in the map. MMTV reported that the map was later updated with corrections. While Silent Valley was marked earlier as Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary, it was updated with the correct map of the national park by evening.