Why in News?

• The Supreme Court modified its 2022 order, which mandated a minimum 1-km eco-sensitive zone around national parks or wildlife sanctuaries.

 What’s in Today’s Article?

• What are Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs)?
• News Summary Regarding Recent SC Order

 What are Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs)?

 Meaning:

• Also known as Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFAs), these are areas in India notified and regulated by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) around Protected Areas, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
• The purpose of declaring ESZs is:
  • To create some kind of shock absorbers to the protected areas by regulating and managing the activities around such areas.
  • To act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to areas involving lesser protection.

Statutory backing:

• The Environment (Protection) Act (EPA), 1986 does not mention the word "Eco-Sensitive Zones".
• However, the following two clauses have been effectively used by the government to declare ESZs or EFAs (Ecologically Fragile Areas) -
  • According to the EPA, the Central Government has the authority to restrict areas in which any industries (or class of industries), operations or processes shall not be carried out or to be carried out with certain safeguards.
  • Furthermore, the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, declare that the Central Government can prohibit or restrict the location of industries on the basis of considerations like the biological diversity of an area, etc.

 Criteria for declaring ESZ:

• The MoEFCC approves a comprehensive set of guidelines laying forth standards and criteria for declaring ESZs on a regular basis. These include -
  • Species Based (Endemism, Rarity etc)
  • Ecosystem Based (sacred groves, frontier forests etc)
  • Geo-morphologic feature based (uninhabited islands, origins of rivers etc)

 Extent of ESZ:

• According to the Wildlife Conservation Strategy of 2002, an ESZ could extend up to 10 km around a protected area.
• Furthermore, sensitive corridors, connectivity and biologically important patches that are critical for landscape linkage should be included in the Eco-Sensitive Zones if their width exceeds 10 km.
• However, even within a Protected Area, the distribution of an ESZ and the extent of control may not be consistent throughout the Protected Area, and it may be of varying breadth and extent.

News Summary Regarding Recent SC Order:

• MoEFCC provides financial assistance to the States under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme-Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats, which includes assistance for eco-development activities.
  • These activities often involve construction of small structures which are permanent in nature in areas including ESZs.
• The SC’s 2022 order raised concerns about human habitations and eco-development projects falling within the proposed ESZs and the Centre had approached the court seeking modification of some of the directions.
  • In June 2022, the Supreme Court directed all national parks and wildlife sanctuaries falling under protected forests to earmark a minimum distance of one kilometre as ESZ.
  • As per this judgement, prohibited activities, including mining and establishment of any new permanent structure, was not permitted in this area.
• Noting that the purpose of declaring ESZs is not to hamper the day to day activities of the locals/ to prevent the government from building strategic infrastructure in those areas, the apex court modified its previous judgement.
• Henceforth, the 2022 order will not be applicable to ESZs in respect to which draft and final notifications have been issued by the MoEFCC, and where proposals for such notifications have been received by the ministry.
  • It will also not be applicable where the national parks and sanctuaries are located on inter-state borders or share common boundaries.
• But, the SC underlined that no mining would be allowed, either within national parks and sanctuaries or in a 1-km radius.