Farmers in Keralam’s Kollam call for hill-region hartal over exclusion of villages from ESA exemption list

A village in Keralam which has been included in the draft ESA notification. | Photo Credit: File photo

A joint front of Left farmer groups have announced a dawn-to-dusk hill-region hartal on October 27 in protest against the inclusion of eight villages in Kollam district under the Union government’s Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) draft notification. The shutdown, scheduled from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., also condemns the State government for allegedly sidelining these eight villages while recommending the exclusion of 33 other villages across Keralam from the contentious draft.