D.K. Shivakumar to hold Udupi, Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru meetings on Kasturirangan draft ahead of Sept 21 session

Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar will visit Udupi, Shivamogga and Chikkamagaluru this weekend to hold public meetings aimed at collecting local feedback on the K. Kasturirangan Committee’s seventh draft notification that proposes declaring large tracts of the Western Ghats as Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA).

The gatherings are timed to feed into a three-day special session the State government has scheduled from September 21 to 23 to discuss the Centre’s draft, which the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change issued on July 28 (per thehindu.com).

Local opposition has already surfaced: thehindu.com reports several protests against the ESA notification, with residents in coastal and Malnad regions warning that their livelihoods would be badly affected if the draft comes into force.

Shivakumar’s meetings are presented by the State as an effort to gather ‘people’s opinions’ ahead of the special session, indicating the government plans to marshal local views into its deliberations with the Centre (per thehindu.com).

The Kasturirangan committee’s draft seeks to map ecologically sensitive zones across the Western Ghats, a move environmental authorities argue is aimed at conserving biodiversity and addressing drought-related concerns; thehindu.com frames the immediate controversy around how those restrictions might constrain agriculture, forest-based livelihoods and local land use.

The state-level scheduling of a special session—explicitly dated September 21 to 23 in the source—makes clear Karnataka intends to treat the draft notification as a matter requiring concentrated legislative and political attention (per thehindu.com).

At present the documented positions are procedural: the Centre issued the draft notification on July 28, and the Karnataka government is holding consultations and a special session to deliberate.

Thehindu.com records public protests and livelihood fears but does not quote specific environmental groups or provide quantified economic impact assessments; nor does it report formal replies from the Union Ministry to Karnataka’s planned meetings.

What follows is a tight political timeline: Shivakumar’s outreach over the weekend is meant to shape the state’s stance before the special session convenes, and protest activity signals that local leaders and residents will press for exemptions or changes if the ESA boundaries or restrictions encroach on farming, forest produce gathering or settlement rights (per thehindu.com).

The outcome will determine whether Karnataka adopts a negotiating stance that accepts, modifies, or rejects elements of the Kasturirangan draft when it addresses the Centre’s notification in the September session (per thehindu.com).