The CPM government in Kerala is on the defensive as the recently released report on the buffer-zone issue by the expert committee formed to identify human inhabited areas has been drawing ire.
Apart from the Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front, various prominent churches in the high ranges and even some CPM ruled local bodies have strongly objected to the satellite survey report on the structures with one kilometre buffer zone from the border areas of protected forests and wildlife sanctuaries.
Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly VD Satheesan, earlier in the day, said, "The Left government took no steps to carry out a proper manual survey utilising the local bodies across the state and instead opted for a satellite survey after wasting several months' time."
Satheesan further alleged that the satellite survey was "incomplete and inaccurate" as it has not taken into account several residential and agricultural areas, towns and thousands of constructions in the surveyed villages.
However, with the issue snowballing into a major row with the Opposition parties, the state government as well as the ruling CPM are now trying to convince the people that the report would be finalised only after addressing the apprehension of people.
Forest Minister A K Saseendran also said that the opinion of Opposition leader V D Satheesan on the Congress to seek more time from SC for submitting the final report would be considered by the government.
Within a day after publishing the satellite survey, hundreds of complaints were learnt to have reached the inbox of the e-mail given for the purpose by the expert committee.
While the satellite report identified about 50,000 structures, those concerned said that the actual numbers is manifold high.
The CPM governed Sultan Bathery municipality in Wayanad maintained that while the satellite survey identified around 15 structures in the municipality, the actual numbers would be over 200.
Similar apprehensions are raised by many of the 115 panchayats that come in the buffer zone.
The expert committee headed by former chief justice of Calcutta High Court Thottathil B Radhakrishnan was formed in September to prepare the report on the human inhabited areas within one kilometre so as to seek exemptions from the court.
The satellite survey report that was prepared by the Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre (KSRSEC) in July was given as the base data. The committee was supposed to conduct field studies based on the satellite survey report and bring out a final report.
However, the expert committee, after two months, simply published the satellite survey report as such and asked the people to give complaints within 10 days.
This triggered apprehension as a major chunk of buildings in the one kilometre region, especially in high ranges, were not included in the satellite survey report.
An official of KSRSEC said that it was natural that many buildings in high ranges could not be spotted in satellite survey owing to canopy cover. Hence a field level survey was required to prepare a foolproof report.
An official associated with the expert committee said that the committee was so far involved in developing software for preparing the final report and other administrative matters. Now it would be easier to prepare the final report after collecting complaints from the people.