Geographical analysis

Abstract

Abstract The term „Ecological Sensitivity‟ is an Indian invention, which means „areas that are ecologically and economically very important, but vulnerable to even mild disturbances and hence demand conservation‟. The Ministry of Environment and Forest set up two committees namely Western Ghat Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) popularly known as Gadgil Committee in 2011 and High Level Working Group (HLWG) known in public sphere as Kasthurirangan Committee in 2013 to identify the Ecologically Sensitive Areas of Western Ghat and to make suggestion to conservation of forest in the region. The WGEEP report included entire Wayanad district within ESA and all villages are demarcated as „no go areas‟ whereas according to HLWG report the total area of ESA in the Wayanad district is 952 sq km, which constitute 44.5 percentage of total geographical area of the district and 13 villages are ESA‟s. As per the recommendations of these two reports the economic activities should be restricted. In this context environmental protection versus agricultural, commercial and residential land use comes into action. The district has remarkable variation in land use pattern, which is dominated by plantation with a growing urban centre surrounded by forested area. This paper analyzes the present land use of the district using geospatial technology.

Key words: Western Ghat, Ecologically Sensitive Area, Land use.