{
  "id": 2169578,
  "title": "Karnataka to reject Centre’s fresh draft notification on Eco-Sensitive Area in Western Ghats",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/20/karnataka-to-reject-centres-fresh-draft-notification-on-eco-sensitive",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-20T15:58:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Hindu",
    "slug": "the-hindu",
    "url": "https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/karnataka-to-reject-centres-fresh-draft-notification-on-eco-sensitive-area-in-western-ghats/article71369949.ece"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Karnataka has informed the Legislative Assembly that it intends to reject the latest draft notification proposed by the Centre concerning the Eco-Sensitive Area (ESA) in the Western Ghats. This decision was announced by Forest, Environment, and Ecology Minister Ramalinga Reddy on July 27, 2026, following members across party lines describing the draft as \"a death knell\" for farmers and residents of the Western Ghats. The decision comes after the high-level committee led by scientist K. Kasthurirangan submitted its report in 2013, recommending the declaration of 56,000 square kilometers, including 20,668 square kilometers in Karnataka, as ESA. The Union Ministry of Environment, Ecology, and Forestry had issued six draft notifications seeking to declare the ESA, but the seventh draft was recently issued as the previous one lapsed without being finalized. The proposed ESA in Karnataka covers 10 districts and 1,449 villages, with the deadline for objections being 60 days from the date of publication. Reddy assured that the draft did not specifically ban activities like farming, and daily life in the ESA area would not be affected. He also noted that the State Cabinet had communicated its stance of rejecting the earlier drafts, as the ESA identified was already covered by reserved forests, notified forests, or Ecologically Sensitive Zones, and imposing further restrictions would hinder conservation efforts. The Minister declared that the government would inform the Centre about rejecting the latest draft.",
  "summary": "Reddy says there was no need to evict anyone from the ESA area, as the draft notification had not specifically banned activities like farming",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}