NEW DELHI: The Centre has shot down the National Wildlife Board’s directive of no constructions or industries in 10-km radius around the sanctuaries and national parks, asserting that their boundary be treated as the eco-sensitive area (ESA) and the economic activities should not be banned up to 20 km.
The Environment and Forests Ministry has decided to get re-examined 650 national parks and sanctuaries to redraw the new boundary of the ESA. It has banked upon a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that the distance of 10 km be substituted by the boundary limits of the zones for the projects to be considered by the standing committee of the National Wildlife Board to consider projects close to the protected areas.
Goa and Sikkim have already approached the ministry for limiting the ESA to not more than one km around the wildlife areas in their jurisdiction, lest their most populated areas fall under ESA. The ministry sources say draft rules would be notified soon fixing the minimal ESA for Goa while such a notification has been already issued fixing 100 metres as the average ESA around eight wildlife areas in Sikkim.
The ministry officials say the drastic reduction of the buffer zones would speed up project development around the protected areas. They said most of the States had opposed the 10-km buffer zone and as such the ministry notifies the new ESA after taking the concerned State into confidence.
