Declaration of Eco Sensitive Zones will End Confusion, Bring Clarity on the Buffer Zone: Javadekar

The Government said that the declaration of Eco Sensitive Zones will end confusion and bring clarity on the buffer zone. Addressing a press conference here today, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar said that the purpose of declaring Eco Sensitive Zone is to create a buffer zone, where only regulated activities for specialized eco system will be allowed and this area will work as further ecological protection for Protected Areas (PAs). The entire exercise has been completed in two States so far, namely, Sikkim and Goa.

A case had been filed in the Supreme Court by Goa Foundation vide WP 460/2004 before the Hon'ble Supreme Court regarding issue of declaration of Eco-sensitive Zones as no meaningful progress was done till then. The Hon'ble Supreme Court, vide order dated 4th December, 2006, gave a final opportunity of four weeks from the date of Order to all States/UTs for sending proposals to the MoEF&CC for demarcation of ESZs. The court also said that in case no ESZ proposal is sent, ESZ of 10 kms shall apply around Protected Areas (PAs).

However, virtually no complete proposals for declaring ESZs were processed for almost eight years. Only about 15 notifications were issued by the middle of 2014.

The process was reviewed by convening meeting of all the States and sensitized them to send the ESZ proposals as early as possible. Nodal persons were identified for the purpose. Special teams were also constituted in the Ministry for expeditious ESZ notifications. Even the matter was taken up with Ministry of Law for special preference to ESZ notifications.

1. The result of this special effort is as following:

(1) Total PAs (National Parks and Sanctuaries) 624

(2) Total proposals received in the Ministry 445

(3) Proposals under scrutiny between State 156

Governments and the Ministry

(4) Proposals under process in the Ministry 113

(5) Proposals approved (and are in Law/ 176

Hindi translation/printing)

(6) Draft notifications issued 31

(7) Final notifications issues 32

(8) Proposals yet to be received 179

The proposals forwarded by the State Governments were sent to Wildlife Institute of India for assessing extent of ESZ, Biodiversity and Wildlife Corridor value and the Geo-coordinates of prominent points on the Ecosystem zone boundary, list of prohibited/regulated activities in the ESZ. The decision support system like geospatial technologies were used to ascertain the extent of ESZ. The recommendations of WII are examined in the Ministry by an Expert Committee before a final notification is issued. This ensures a justifiable ESZ.

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