As all these Writ Petitions involve a common issue, they are taken up for consideration together and disposed by this common judgment.

2. In all these Writ Petitions, the petitioners are persons who are engaged in stone quarrying and crushing operations. It is not in dispute that they all hold quarrying leases/permits issued by the statutory authorities under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 read with the Kerala Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 2015. It would appear that the petitioners had all approached the respective Environment Impact Assessment Authorities (either district level or State level) under the Environment (Protection) Act, Rules and Notifications issued there under, for the purposes of obtaining an Environmental Clearance certificate. The applications submitted by the petitioners were not considered/processed by the respective Environment Impact Assessment Authorities on the ground that there was an ambiguity with regard to whether or not the area, where the quarrying/crushing operations were proposed, fell within the ambit of Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) as notified by the Central Government, in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. In the Writ Petitions, the prayers sought for are essentially to direct 826 the respective Environment Impact Assessment Authorities to process the applications for Environmental Clearance, expeditiously, by treating the petitioners project as falling under non-ESA category.

3. A counter affidavit has been filed for and on behalf of the additional 7th respondent in W.P.(C) No.31959 of 2017, wherein the details of the steps taken by the Committee constituted by the State Government to finalise the cadastral map of ESA villages is narrated and it is stated that, after identifying particular villages in the State, which could be categorised as ecologically sensitive areas, a further survey was done so as to identify the particular areas within those villages, which could be categorised as ESA for the purposes of the draft notification issued by the Central Government in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

4. I have heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioners in all these Writ Petitions, the learned Government Pleader appearing for the official respondents from the State as also the learned Standing Counsel appearing for the Pollution Control Board, in all these Writ Petitions.

5. On a consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case as also the submissions made across the bar, I find from the averments in the Writ Petition, as also the averments in the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the 7th respondent, that the main issue that arises in the instant cases is with regard to the identification of ecologically sensitive areas within the State of Kerala, for the purposes of imposing restrictions in respect of specified activities within the said areas. It is the contention of the petitioners in these Writ Petitions that the areas, where they are carrying on quarrying/crushing operations, are not those that have been identified by the State Government as falling under the category of ecologically sensitive areas. I find that, by a draft notification dated 27.02.2017, produced as Ext.P10 in W.P.(C) No.31959 of 2017, the Central Government in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had, after taking note of the report submitted by the High Level Working Group constituted by the Ministry to study the preservation of the ecology, environmental integrity and holistic development of the Western Ghats, found that it was necessary to notify an identified area of 56,825 Sq.km spread across six States namely, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as the Western Ghats ecologically sensitive area. With regard to the fixing of the boundaries and description of the Western Ghats eco sensitive area in the State of Kerala, the draft notification finds that the eco sen