PANAJI
Goa will finally have a State-level committee to physically monitor the notified eco-sensitive zones around its wildlife sanctuaries and national parks which will be headed by Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goel.
Apart from Goel and secretaries of 11 different departments, the 16-member panel also has Sandeep Azrekar of the Nisarga Nature Club, Milnd Gadgil of Parshuram Grameen Vikas Saunsthan, Valpoi and Professor M K Janarthnam who is the dean of the life sciences faculty of Goa University as an expert.
It also has a representative on it of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change which will issue instructions to the committee off and on to effectively discharge its functions in the areas notified as ESZs around the boundaries of wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and bird sanctuaries.
These areas outside the boundaries of the protected areas were formerly marked as 'buffer zones' and did not have statutory backing to bar activity, commercial or otherwise, which were detrimental to wildlife conservation.
Now that these are notified ESZs, multiple forest and wildlife protection notifications which debar activities that harm wildlife are banned and the functioning of this committee becomes crucial to continuously monitor the zones.
The Additional Chief Conservator of Forests will be the committee's member-secretary, according to the notification issued by Environment Director, Dr Geeta Nagvenkar.
