Coalition fills gap with Kannada translation of environmental draft

The seventh Environmental and Social Assessment (ESA) draft, which pertains to a proposed protected area with its largest portion located in Karnataka, was initially made available only in English and Hindi by the Union Government. This limited language availability prompted concerns that local stakeholders and affected communities in Karnataka faced barriers to understanding and engaging with the document.

Recognizing this information gap, a coalition of civil society organizations has now published a Kannada translation of the draft to ensure that residents and communities in the region can access and comprehend the full contents of the assessment. The move aims to enhance transparency and enable more meaningful participation from local stakeholders who are directly impacted by the proposed protected area designation.

The availability of the draft in Kannada is seen as a critical step toward inclusive development planning. Karnataka, as the state with the largest share of the proposed protected area, has significant population centers and communities whose livelihoods and land use may be affected by any resulting policy decisions.

The release of the Kannada translation underscores ongoing tensions between the need for broad accessibility of government policy documents and the reality that many important environmental and development assessments are published in limited languages. Advocates argue that wider language availability is essential for informed public participation and democratic accountability in large infrastructure and conservation projects.