THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the buffer zone issue, the Supreme Court had given verdict on June 3. The government rejected the court’s suggestion to get concession by submitting satellite image of populated areas. This led to the situation getting worse in the state.

Only when there were mass protests, did the government began to make some progress. The lack of coordination between the Revenue, Local Body, and Agriculture departments led to a setback. All the burden was hoisted upon the forest department and the other departments stood away from the issue.

Following the court’s order, the government had to provide related documents on September 3 for concession. It must be submitted to Union Forest Ministry, Environmental Ministry and Empowered Committee. The court will only consider the application for concession given to it by the Central Government. When many other states intervened in this matter, Kerala did not go forward. When the case is taken into consideration on January 11, seven months have lapsed since the verdict came.

If the coordination and intervention of other departments were there just after the verdict came, they the issue would not have been complicated. Even when it was known that 10 lakh acres of agriculture land under buffer zone would be taken over, the agriculture department did not even conduct a simple probe into it.

The Revenue Department, which has the survey number of the lands and the Local Body Department, which has the details of the buildings, did not make any intervention.