The May 15 deadline set by Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for States to delineate Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZ) around protected areas (PA) and wildlife sanctuaries has yet again not been adhered to.
While the second extension of deadline expired on February 14, this year, States like Kerala even opposed such moves recently. Few others like Gujarat, Jharkhand, Haryana, and Karnataka have, however, notified the ESZ’s of some of their prominent PAs recently.
According to MoEF sources, “We have received proposals from about 220 PAs so far. The Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan had informed the Parliament earlier this month that eco-sensitive zones of seven protected areas had been notified as on April 30. These include Girnar, Narayan Sarovar, Purna and Vansda in Gujarat, Sultanpur in Haryana, Dalma in Jharkhand and Bandipur in Karnataka.
“The proposals of ESZ of over 400 PAs are still pending across the country,” noted the sources. There are a total of 102 national parks and 515 wildlife sanctuaries in the country. In such a situation, deadline is likely to be extended again, they felt. It was last extended on February 14 and earlier in February 2011, after the formulation of
guidelines in this regard.
The issue had also been recently raised in the last Standing Committee meeting of National Board for Wildlife on March 20. The members noted that the notification and creation of ESZs, is an exercise of far-reaching consequences for wildlife conservation which will have wide ramifications for the years to come.
A judiciously planned and notified ESZ will thus go a long way in protecting the integrity of the remnant wildlife habitats and PAs, while being very mindful of varying regimes of ownership, access and use of these areas, the members noted.
Certain members of NBWl had also called for setting up of regional committees to make sure that this important exercise is carried out diligently and not in an arbitrary manner.
The task is not easy, pointed out sources from MoEF
specially when States as Kerala has openly expressed their
dissent. It has stated in unequivocal terms that it was not in favour of extending eco-sensitive zone in areas of human settlements fringing national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. It has clarified that it did not want to cause any difficulties to human population living in these areas for years.
The concept of ESZ was first adopted in the agenda of the then Indian Board For Wildlife in 2002, for the compulsory declaration of ESZ around PAs and WlS. This was aimed at prohibiting developmental activities in such eco fragile regions.
The Supreme Court also ruled that a radius of 10 km should be declared as eco-sensitive zone around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. The MoEF also came out
with specific guidelines for notification of ESZs around national parks and sanctuaries on February 9, 2011.