Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Forest Department has announced that help desks have been established in 80 panchayats to address public's concerns over the anomalies in the tentative map of the buffer zones adjoining protected forests. A total number of 85 panchayats have been designated as buffer zones or Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZs).

Despite repeatedly issuing directives, no action to establish help desks has been taken so far in the panchayats of Kallikad and Aryanad in Thiruvananthapuram district; Devikulam and Munnar in Idukki district; and Thekkekara in Palakkad district, stated the Forest Department authorities.

Also, physical inspection of the disputed areas that have been delineated as buffer zones in the map has not begun even in half the number of panchayats. A K Saseendran, Minister for Forests, said that directives had been issued to carry out the work on an urgent basis in two days. An observation committee has been appointed to ensure compliance.

No let-up in complaints

Meanwhile, complaints and ambiguities continued over the new map published after including the survey numbers persist.

The Forest department has given a new email Id for registering complaints. Seventy-five complaints were received in the email address Friday. The Forest department headquarters at the Secretariat has received 22,000 complaints with regard to the satellite survey and the draft map of the department. It was also found that many of the complaints were duplicates.

Of the complaints received, 7,500 have been handed over to the panchayats concerned.

January 7 is the deadline for registering complaints with regard to all the maps published till now by the Forest department. It is doubtful whether procedures, including inspection of the sites, could be completed within this time period.

The Forest department claims that the measures would be speeded up by deploying more officials.

The Kerala Government recently published a draft map demarcating buffer zones around 22 wildlife sanctuaries but complaints over “inclusions and omissions” are pouring in. In the map, the proposed ESZ suggested by the Wildlife Department are shown as green lines inside red. Wildlife sanctuaries are shown as pink and panchayat borders with black line. The map has been prepared on the basis of a satellite survey by the State Government to claim relaxation for the apex court mandate to set up a one-kilometre buffer zone around forests.