Thiruvananthapuram, Sept. 26 -- Keralam environment minister Sunny Joseph said on Friday that the state government has written to the Centre seeking the exclusion of residential areas, agricultural areas and plantations from the proposed Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZ) in the Western Ghats. The minister said that while the latest draft notification published in July this year proposed to bring 9,993.7 sqkm across 123 villages in the state under ESZ, the state wants the ESZ area to be restricted to 8,590.69 sqkm across 98 villages. "Out of the proposed 9,993.7 sq km of ESZ, 9,107 sq km is forest land and the remaining 886.7 sq km is non-forest land. If the non-forest area is kept out of the proposed ESZ, Keralam's concerns will be allevia...