PANAJI
Human habitations in close proximity to protected forests like Sanctuaries and National Parks got a breather of sorts with the Supreme Court on Wednesday modifying its June 3, 2022 order mandating an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) for one-kilometre around these protected areas.
Saying rather than avoiding man-animal conflict, the order will intensify this, the Supreme Court bench of Justices B R Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol, modified the order, arguing there are inbuilt safeguards to prevent rampant construction which may be detrimental to wildlife habitats.
The bench said if the direction as contained in paragraph 56.5 of the order dated June 3, 2022 that even for continuation of existing activities, the permission of the PCCF (Principal Chief Conservator of Forests) of each state or Union Territory would be necessary, remains unmodified, there will be hundreds of villages wherein millions of people would be residing, and the PCCF would be left with no other job except to consider such applications for permission to continue such activities.
The Apex Court however reiterated that "any sort of mining" will not be permitted in the wild life sanctuaries and protected forests and one-kilometer around them as it is detrimental to wild life habitat.
The Supreme Court modification of the order came following a request by the Central government.
The modification of the earlier order comes as a relief to sections of the population in Goa who have been opposing the Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) recent proposal to notify as ecologically sensitive areas (ESAs) areas around Goa's sanctuaries -- Mhadei, Netravali and Bhagwan Mahavir -- besides the Mollem National Park along the Western Ghats.
The MoEF&CC proposal encompassed 99 Goan villages where it is facing stiff opposition, including from Goa's Forest Minister Vishwajit Rane.
Rane had said the Goa government will demand removal of the 99 villages from the Centre’s draft ESZ notification, adding that he had already petitioned the Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav and the Director General of Forests with the sentiments of villagers in Goa who do not want the 99 villages demarcated as ESZs.
The draft notification was issued by the MOEF&CC in July last year, which intended to declare 1,461 square kilometers in Goa as Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA).
These 1,461 sq kms covered 99 villages in Sattari, Sanguem and Canacona talukas. In Sattari, 56 villages fall in the proposed ESA. Canacona has five and Sanguem taluka had 38 villages covered.
In toto, a massive 56,825 square kilometers spread over five other States -- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu -- was proposed as a contiguous Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area.
The notification was to take effect sixty days from the day the GoI gazette containing the draft is made available to the public seeking suggestions and objections from stakeholders.
The actual area of ESZs will only be finalized based on recommendations of the States, views of stakeholders and that of the ESZ Expert Committee, the MoEF&CC notification had said.
The process to identify eco-sensitive areas of the Western Ghats to be protected was one that dated back several years with two different expert panels making separate recommendations.
First the Madhav Gadgil-led Western Ghat Ecology Expert Panel had recommended nearly 75 per-cent of the nearly 1,29,037 square kilometer long mountain range needed to be protected.
Later, another panel headed by space scientist K Kasturirangan, had recommended a smaller 37 per-cent area of the ghats representing 59,940 square kilometers as eco-sensitive area to be protected.
Environmentalists believe the ESAs are critical to mitigate and prevent disasters and Climate Change challenges.
