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