Eco-sensitive zones to be earmarked by March

Taking a snipe at the previous UPA government, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday said he had so far approved 176 proposals for eco-sensitive zones (ESZ) around protected areas while the last government issued just 15 proposals in eight years.

There are 624 wildlife areas in the country which are designated as protected areas. 156 of them are under scrutiny by the Centre and the state governments.

The goal of declaring ESZ is to create a buffer zone where only regulated activities are allowed to save flora and fauna within the protected areas.

However, the minister clarified that of the total, draft notification had been issued for 31 proposals while another 32 had been cleared.

On the question of India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submissions ahead of the Paris climate change summit, Mr. Javadekar said that there were considerable differences between India and other countries on the question of differentiation as regards responsibility, and financing climate action, and in order to resolve these the French government had started the Paris informer, which will help avoid delays. Out of the remaining 524, 445 proposals were received by the ministry. We should not maintain confusion in the system. “The ministry is making a compliance mechanism and creating that architecture (for it)”. In the absence of such demarcation, the court had ordered, the ESZ of 10km would apply around protected areas. Virtually no complete proposal for declaring ESZs were processed for nearly eight years.

Javadekar said the Ministry reviewed the process by convening meetings with states and sensitised them to send ESZ proposals as early as possible. The Ministry identified nodal persons and constituted special teams to speed up the ESZ notifications. Even as the minister played up the pace of work in declaring ESZ’s, there was no mention of on what scientific basis ESZ’s were demarcated and reduced. The proposals forward by state governments were sent to Wildlife Institute of India for assessing extent of ESZ, Biodiversity and Wildlife Corridor value and the Geo-coordinates of prominent points on the Ecosystem zone boundary, list of prohibited/regulated activities in the ESZ, he further said.

When the ESZs were originally proposed in 2002, it was suggested that all areas within a 10 km radius of a protected area should be declared an eco-sensitive zone.