The memorandum citing the development came late on Tuesday night—a day before announcement of dates for Lok Sabha elections due by May.

It said since Kerala was the only state which undertook demarcation of ESAs, the ministry has decided to issue a draft notification of these areas based on that recommendation. Agricultural land, plantations and habitations will be kept out of ESAs in the state.

The memorandum added that the ministry will consider recommendations of other state governments if they undertake the exercise of demarcating ESA by physical verification and submit the proposal to MoEF. It will also seek stakeholders’ comments on the draft notification of the demarcation of ESAs.

With elections due by May, the ESA issue had become a major political issue in Kerala. MoEF had in late last year accepted the report of the high-level working group (HLWG) led by planning commission member Kasturirangan.

The Kasturirangan report had said that 37% of the total area under Western Ghats is ecologically sensitive—covering about 60,000sq.km spread across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The report distinguishes between cultural and natural landscape. It says that cultural landscapes, which include human settlements, agricultural fields and plantations, covered 58.44% of the Western Ghats. It identifies 90% of the remaining natural landscape area marked as an ESA. The panel thus called for a complete ban on mining, quarrying and sand mining in these areas.

“All current mining areas in the ESA should be phased out within the next five years, or at the time of expiry of mining lease, whichever is earlier,” the report said.

Sunita Narain, director general of the delhi-based, not-for-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and a member of the HLWG, said that the report was never against agricultural lands, plantations or habitation inside the ESA.

“There has been deliberate miscommunication, and a campaign led by political elements and the environment ministry is responsible for this as it never published the report and clarified the matter,” Narain said over the phone.

The report was only against mining, large intervention projects and red category industry inside the ESAs, she added.

The panel had recommended that no thermal power projects should be allowed in the ESA. Hydropower projects should be allowed only after “a cumulative study which assesses the impact of each project on the flow pattern of the rivers and forest and biodiversity loss” is conducted.

The report had said that all red category industries which are identified as heavily polluting by the environment ministry—including fertilizer plants, oil refineries, tanneries and copper smelters in 60-item list—should be strictly banned.

The HLWG was formed to review the report submitted by a committee headed by ecologist Madhav Gadgil. Narain said that the Gadgil report had a table about agriculture and plantations and talked about restricting them in ESAs, but the HLWG never restricted it.

The Gadgil report had suggested that the whole ESA should be divided into three categories with different rules for each. It had said that 90% of the Western Ghats should be a no-go area.