Vivek Saxena, DIG, Wildlife Protection, in his affidavit tothe Supreme Court on behalf of the Environment and Forest Ministry, filed for a10 kms buffer zone around the wildlife notified forest areas within which nocommercial activity including mining can be carried out.
The MoEF decision came as a surprise, especially as the MoEFaffidavit also stated that no state has filed its reply in the same 202/1995Gavardaman v/s Union of India Writ Petition to decide on buffer zones.
Amicus Curiae Harish Salve urged the Apex Court to withdrawthe 2005 stand of the MoEF and the Goa Foundation Plea of 2006 in which ajudgment was passed to decide on buffer zones on a site specific and case bycase basis.
The three member Special Bench comprising of Justice AftabAlam, K S Radhakrishnan and Justice Swantanter Kumar decided to take the casefor argument on November 30 after stating that the court will not give any more timeto states to file their reply in court. The only state to have filedits reply till date is Goa asking for a one km buffer zone keeping in mind thesmall size of the state.
Speaking to The Goan from the MoEF Paryavaran Bhavan inNew Delhi, Saxena stated that the affidavit, as on October 18, claimed that nostate has filed for any replies despite Goa filing its reply to the SC becausethe MoEF was unaware of Goa’s reply to the court as of that date.
Director of Mines Prasanna Acharya, Goa Minerals and OreExporters Association secretary Sridhar Kamat were present at the hearing.
