Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government will urge the Centre to completely exclude human habitations and agricultural land from the purview of Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) in the Western Ghats.

The state will also present to the Centre's newly constituted expert committee the recommendations it submitted after conducting local-level studies based on the Oommen V Oommen Committee report. The government has also decided to invite members of the panel to Kerala for discussions.

The move came following the Centre’s reported decision to include inhabited areas in the Western Ghats under the proposed ESA notification.

The decisions were taken at a meeting chaired by Environment Minister Sunny Joseph to discuss the state's response to concerns surrounding ESA notifications and the need to urgently communicate Kerala's position to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister V D Satheesan, and attended by the Forest and Environment Ministers and senior officials, will be held on June 30 to further deliberate on the issue.