The Karnataka Legislative Assembly and Council on Tuesday (September 22, 2026) adopted unanimous resolution urging the Centre to confine the Ecological Sensitive Area (ESA) identified as per the Kasthurirangan report on conservation of Western Ghats to only the notified forests. It also sought a year’s time for the State to help take up a physical survey of the areas coming under ESA.

“The draft notification issued by the Centre regarding the ESA in Karnataka should not be finalised till the next one year when the physical survey would be completed. The final decision on ESA should be taken only after the State submits its report to the Centre and only after detailed discussion by the Centre with the State,” said the resolution, which was tabled by Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar.

The resolution said that Karnataka would constitute a high-level committee led by a retired judge to suggest measures to correct the “lacunae” in the Kasthurirangan report through appropriate modifications. The committee would comprise officials from the Revenue and Forest Departments besides representatives of farmers, industrial units and experts from academic institutions that have expertise in the sectors of forest and ecology.

The State government would submit the report of the high-level committee and the physical survey of the ESA, the resolution said. The government would also form committee comprising people’s representatives at village panchayat level to help assist the high-power committee.

The Centre had, on July 27, issued the seventh draft notification on ESA based on the Kasthurirangan report, which comprises 20,668 square km of area spread over 1,449 villages across 10 districts of the State. The State’s stand on ESA would mean reducing it to about 16,000 square kms.

The unanimous resolution demanded that agricultural/horticultural/plantation lands, human settlements and areas of public activities should not be included in the ESA.

The experts’ committee should demarcate the boundary of forests and human settlements through a physical survey which is based on the revenue survey numbers of the property, the resolution said.

In reference to concerns that ESA has included even those lands that have been granted to people by the government under various provisions of law, the resolution demanded that the ESA should take into consideration the land grants, bagair hukum scheme (under which title deeds have been provided to tiller of land), the results of appeal before courts and the court cases.

It also sought formulation of guidelines to provide financial assistance to help farmers and workers impacted by ESA to find alternative livelihoods.

The resolution alleged that the ESA was not accurate as it had been determined based on satellite data instead of a joint physical survey by the forest and revenue departments. People would be put to inconvenience as the ESA has included even the agricultural lands, houses and public amenities alongside forest land.

Tabling the resolution, the Chief Minister said people were anguished as the draft ESA would comprise an entire village if 20% of its geographical area came under the classification of forests.

Making it clear that the government was committed to protecting the interests of affected farmers and people, the Chief Minister declared that the government had taken a stand that no one should be evicted because of the draft ESA and that no activities like agriculture should be affected.

Welcoming the resolution, Opposition BJP members including Leader of the Opposition R. Ashok, demanded that the State should take measures to implead before the National Green Tribunal which was looking into the draft ESA. The Chief Minister had held public consultations with affected people prior to the session.