Supreme Court Mandates Minimum 1 KM ESZ For Protected Forests

Tags: National News

In a significant order, the Supreme Court on 3 June directed that each protected forest,  national park and wildlife sanctuary should have an Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ) of 1 kilometre.

• Directions of the court

• The Court also directed that no permanent structure shall be allowed within the ESZ.

• Mining cannot be permitted within a National Wildlife Sanctuary or a National Park.

• If the existing ESZ extends beyond the 1 km buffer zone or if any statutory instrument prescribes a higher limit, such extended limit shall prevail.

• The Chief Conservator of Forests of each state has been directed to make a list of the existing structures in the ESZ and submit a report to the court.

• A three-judge bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, BR Gavai and Aniruddha Bose, in its 60-page judgment, highlighted how the country's natural resources have been depleted over the years by mining and other activities.

• What are the Eco-sensitive Zones (ESZs)?

• ESZ are also called Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFAs).

• These are areas notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) around Protected Areas, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.

• They also act as transition zones from areas of high security to areas of low security.

• An ESZ can go up to 10 kilometres around a protected area, as provided in the Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 2002.