Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change of the Republic of India

07/18/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/19/2022 01:11

Demarcating Buffer Zones under ESZ

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Demarcating Buffer Zones under ESZ

Posted On: 18 JUL 2022 5:30PM by PIB Delhi

Hon'ble Supreme Court by its judgment dated 3rd June 2022 in I. A. No. 1000 in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 202 of 1995, has directed that each protected forest, that is national park or wildlife sanctuary, must have an ESZ (Eco-Sensitive Zone) of minimum one kilometre measured from the demarcated boundary of such protected forest in which the activities proscribed and prescribed in the Guidelines of 9th February, 2011 shall be strictly adhere to.

Hon'ble Court has further directed that the minimum width of the ESZ may be diluted in overwhelming public interest but for that purpose the State or Union Territory concerned shall approach the CEC and MoEF&CC and both these bodies shall give their respective opinions/ recommendations before the Court. On that basis, the Court shall pass appropriate order.

Within the ESZ notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, there are activities which are prohibited, promoted and regulated as per the notification.

As per the procedure laid down for notification of ESZ, the draft proposals related to finalization of ESZ received from the State Governments are examined in the Ministry before publication. The final notification is published after examining the claims and objections received after the draft notification

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has published draft notification for an area of 56,825 square kilometre spread across six States, namely, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, as the Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area recently on 6th July, 2022.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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