Bengaluru: The Cabinet on Friday decided to recommend to the Centre to exempt the villages and private lands, — barring those in Reserved and Protected forests, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks —- from the jurisdiction of the proposed Ecologically Sensitive Areas under the Kasturirangan report on the conservation of Western Ghats.

Briefing presspersons after the Cabinet meeting, Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra said these villages and private lands were spread across 40 taluks in the Western Ghats. The recommendation of the Cabinet would be submitted to the Centre in the form of comments by April 30, he said.

While the Cabinet had accepted the report’s recommendation for a complete ban on mining in the proposed ESAs, it favoured regulation of quarrying and sand activities. Similarly, it favoured “regulation” rather than a “ban” on expansion of townships and built-up area of individual buildings beyond prescribed size. It also decided to adhere to the norm of not allowing new thermal plants and expansion of existing ones in the ESA, he said.

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