Category : Wildlife | Location : Rajasthan | Posted on 2022-07-13 01:55:16
Jaipur: The forest department will prepare a fresh draft to declare the area around the 1,216sqkm Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) in Alwar district as an Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ).
The decision to carry out the exercise was taken at a meeting on Tuesday following the Supreme Court’s recent directions, which stated that each protected forest should have a 1km ESZ.
Chief conservator of forests (CCF) RN Meena said, “The apex court had recently directed that national parks and wildlife sanctuaries must have an ESZ of 1km from the demarcated boundary. We will follow the court’s direction while preparing the fresh draft.”
In the previous draft, the forest department had determined ESZ boundaries between 0-1 km from forest borders. After the ESZ boundary was marked as 1km from the main entrance gate of a tiger reserve, resistance mounted from various sections of society, including politicians, villagers, hoteliers and businessmen.
A forest official said, “As many villages including Thanagazi, which have high human population density, were included in the previous ESZ in March last year, villagers staged a protest. It was claimed nearly 4 lakh people living in 116 villages would be affected.”
The new draft notification will prohibit any new construction of hotels and resorts within 1 kilometre of the boundary of the wildlife sanctuary. Environmentalists also appreciated the move of marking new ESZ boundaries as it will reduce the impact of human intervention in the core protected areas. Also, the previous draft had several ambiguities. The Apex court had directed that no permanent structure will be allowed within the ESZ. Also, mining within national wildlife sanctuaries or national parks cannot be permitted.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/sariska-tiger-turfs-periphery-to-become-eco-sensitive-zone/articleshowprint/92838244.cms
