EDEN IAS

Menu
KEEP ESZ OF 1 KM AROUND FORESTS

UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS | KEEP ESZ OF 1 KM AROUND FORESTS: SC | 06TH JUNE | THE HINDU

/ June, 2022, UPSC Daily Current Affairs

SYLLABUS SECTION: GS II (Governance)

WHY IN THE NEWS?

  • Recently, Supreme Court directed that every protected KEEP ESZ OF 1 KM AROUND FORESTS, national park, and wildlife sanctuary across the country.
  • They should have a mandatory eco-sensitive zone of a minimum of one km starting from their demarcated boundaries.
  • The purpose of declaring ESZs around national parks, forests, and sanctuaries.
  • That is to create some kind of shock absorber for the protected areas.

 

  • A radius of 10 km outside the park has been enforce by the Supreme Court since 2006.
  • These zones would act as transition zone from areas of high protection to those involving lesser protection.

RECOMMENDATIONS GIVEN BY THE SUPREME COURT:

  • Supreme Court said that government should not confine its role to that of a facilitator of economic activities for the immediate upliftment of the fortunes of the State.
  • The State has to act as a trustee for the benefit of the general public in relation to the natural resources so that sustainable development could be achieving in the long term.
  • Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve are among a handful of national parks in the country, which is without a declared eco-sensitive zone.

ECONOMIC SENSITIVE ZONE:

  • It is a buffer or transition zone around highly-protected areas such as National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
  • These are ecologically and economically important but are vulnerable to even mild disturbance.
  • These areas are notified by the Central Government through the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change (MOEFCC) under the provisions of the Environment Protection Act of 1986.
Features of Eco-Sensitive Areas:
  • Biologically and ecologically rich, valuable and unique
  • Largely irreplaceable if destroyed
  • High value to human societies
  • Maintain ecological stability of the area
  • Conserves biological diversity
 

·         The word Eco-sensitive Zones has not been mentioned in Environment Protection Act, 1986.

·         The government used the following two clauses in reference to declaring Eco-Sensitive Zones or Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFA).

 

o   The section 3(2)(v) of the Act, says that Central Government can restrict areas in which any industries, operations, or processes shall not be carried out or shall be carried out subject to certain safeguards

 

o   Besides the section 5 (1) of this act says that the central government can prohibit or restrict the location of industries and carrying on certain operations or processes on the basis of considerations like the biological diversity of an area, maximum allowable limits of concentration of pollutants for an area, environmentally compatible land use, and proximity to protected areas.

 

·         The same criteria have been used by the government to declare No Development Zones also.

·         Two important committees related to ESZ are Madhav Gadgil and Kashturiranjan Committee.

Source: The Hindu