Government resists UN pressure on Western Ghats; not to implement Unesco report, a must for heritage tag

NEW DELHI: The government has warded off pressure from Unesco to implement the controversial Western Ghats report as a pre-condition to the 'World Heritage' tag. Western Ghats sites have been declared as World Heritage but without any additional restrictions on development as suggested by the Western Ghats Ecology Experts Panel — something states such as Karnataka and Kerala have been complaining about unaware of the Centre's intervention in the UN.
With a day to go before the Unesco meeting was to decide on the Western Ghats heritage tag proposal — which was pending fire since 2002 — the UN panel recommended that the decision be again deferred until the Indian government explained how it had integrated the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel into its plans for the region.

The Unesco panel on heritage list recommended that India should "review the scope and composition of the current serial nomination to take account of any recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel or other relevant information, in order to reflect the full spectrum of ecological and biodiversity values of the Western Ghats, and to further enhance the protection of the values of the nominated property". But the officers of environment ministry reacted quickly to intervene officially. They pointed out that though the report had been submitted, it was still under process within the government and a fait accompli could not be imposed. The Indian intervention noted that even while putting out the report for public comments, the central government had noted that the panel's recommendations had not been accepted so far.
The intervention by the environment ministry ensured that the objections to the Indian proposal for tagging Western Ghats sites as World Heritage were removed and the listing approved.
State governments have been up in arms against the proposal just as several other stakeholders including industry and forest dwellers groups are wary of any new legal regime being imposed in the name of conservation of forests. While the industry is wary that the tag could bring greater scrutiny on industrial projects in the mine-rich area, tribal activists are concerned that the conservation agenda would mean another attempt to divest the poor of their yet to be recorded rights in the forests.
By keeping the Western Ghats report disentangled from the World Heritage tag, the Centre has ensured that even if it implements the report later, in complete or in parts, the strong recommendations of the expert panel do not become binding even before it processes it.