Indian bishops decry evictions from eco-sensitive zones

UCA News reporter

Villagers try to lead a herd of wild elephants grazing in a paddy field back to a forest near a village, some 120km northwest of Kolkata on Nov. 11, 2021. India’s Supreme Court last month declared all places within a kilometer around protected forest areas as eco-sensitive zones. (Photo: AFP)

Catholic bishops have urged top politicians in the southern Indian state of Kerala to initiate legal steps to stall the likely eviction of some 150,000 families from the sensitive zones of wildlife sanctuaries and parks in the state.

India's Supreme Court last month declared all places within a kilometer around protected forest areas as eco-sensitive zones (ESZs) and has disallowed new permanent structures to come up within them.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who met a delegation of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) on June 30, reportedly assured them he had sought legal opinion on ways to avoid eviction of people from the ESZs.

We had a cordial meeting with the chief minister who listened to us carefully and agreed to do everything legally possible to protect the life and livelihood of farmers in the state, Father Jacob G Palakkappilly, the spokesperson of KCBC, told UCA News on July 1.

Vijayan said his government will explore legal remedies at his disposal for the benefit of the farmers and in the interest of the common people, he added.

The delegation also met other political leaders asking them to convene a special session of the state assembly to discuss the implications of the court judgment on the lives of people who have been living in the forest areas for generations.

Archbishop Pamplany is among the bishops who have joined the people's protests

Archbishop Joseph Pamplany of Tellicherry, who led the delegation, said: If the top court order is implemented at least two million people (mostly farmers and their families) will be displaced for no fault of theirs.

The state government can easily protect them from displacement, provided it fixes the ESZs one kilometer within the boundary of the protected forests rather than fixating it outside the present boundaries, he said.

The bishops during interaction with Vijayan, the only serving communist chief minister in India, requested him to take the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Delhi into his confidence and seek a review of the Supreme Court judgment.

The top court order, they said, had considered the situations existing in northern Indian states rather than a state like Kerala in southern India where forest and wildlife are protected.

Kerala has witnessed mass protests against the order with the Catholic Church and farmers' organizations taking the lead in making people aware of its implications.

Archbishop Pamplany is among the bishops who have joined the people's protests. The prelate also openly extended his support to the farmers to oppose any move by the government to evacuate them.

The bishops allege that provincial governments including in Kerala state failed to present the factual position before the top court leading to such an adverse court order.