MoEF against dilution of park buffer zones,says move will hamper wildlife conservation

NEW DELHI: The environment ministry has opposed the recommendations of the Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court and the amicus curiae’s suggestions that the ring of limited-industrialization zone around the 600 plus national parks and sanctuaries be diminished.

The ministry has said that the suggestions to reduce and pre-fix the area of the eco-sensitive zones around wildlife sanctuaries were devoid of objective and scientific criteria and were delinked from the primary aim of conserving wildlife.

In a process running over years and marked by objections from states, the Centre had first decided in 2002 that a 10 km area around all national parks and sanctuaries would be demarcated as eco-fragile zones where some industrial activities would be banned and others regulated. But with several states protesting that it was not feasible, the government amended its decision to create eco-sensitive zones under the Environment Protection Act, 1972 on a case-to-case basis based on a list of criteria.

In the meanwhile, the apex court ordered that if states did not demarcate eco-sensitive zones, all projects falling within a 10 km periphery of wildlife areas would require clearance from the National Board of Wildlife –the highest body under the Wildlife Protection Act. In February 2011, the centre provided detailed guidelines on how states could prepare proposals for the protective zones.

Later, apex court’s green committee classified the country’s 102 national parks and 515 wildlife sanctuaries into four categories based on geographical spread. The CEC suggested that safety zones for these categories of protected areas be fixed at 2 km, 1 km, 500 metres or 100 metres from the park boundaries.The amicus curiae, furthermore suggested, that these should be complete no-go areas for industry.