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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

07/10/24 11:44 AM IST

Gir forest eco-sensitive zone

In News
  • Recently, Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) published a notification, proposing to notify 3,328 square kilometres around the Gir forest in Gujarat as an Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ).
Gir protected area
  • Gir PA includes the Gir National Park, the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary, the Paniya Wildlife Sanctuary and the Mitiyala Wildlife Sanctuary, spread across the Junagadh, Amreli and Gir Somnath districts in Gujarat’s Saurashtra region in its south.
  • It is Gujarat’s largest compact tract of protected forest but is also surrounded by high-density human settlements.
  • Being territorial animals, Asiatic lions started moving out of the forest boundaries in the early 1990s.
  • Generally, people living on Gir’s periphery have received the big cats well, tolerating the occasional loss of livestock and attacks on humans.
  • The Asiatic lion population increased from 327 in 2001 to 674 in 2020.
Criticism
  • Successive proposals for notifying an ESZ around the Gir Protected Area (PA) have faced protests from politicians and the public.
  • Gir is a National Park, meaning it enjoys a very high degree of government protection for safeguarding wildlife, and is the last remaining abode of the Asiatic lions.
  • ESZs essentially act as buffer zones around Protected Areas — national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, tiger reserves, etc. — so that the wildlife has a transition zone around them.
  • The Centre issued the first draft notification for an ESZ around Gir on October 25, 2016, covering 3,328 sq km. 
Eco-sensitive zones
  • The National Environment Policy of 2006 defined Eco-Sensitive Zones “as areas/zones with identified environmental resources having incomparable values which require special attention for their conservation”, because of its landscape, wildlife, biodiversity, historical and natural values.
  • Protected Areas help conserve ecosystems adversely affected by anthropogenic and climatic factors.
  • ESZs then act as shock absorbers for wildlife in PAs when they move from areas of higher environmental protection to lower.
  • No commercial mining, stone quarrying, large hydroelectric projects, polluting industries, brick kilns, etc. are allowed in ESZ. Commercial establishment of hotels, resorts, small-scale non-polluting industries and the construction of civic amenities are regulated.
  • The idea of ESZ was conceived in 2002. Lands falling within 10 km of the boundaries of national parks and sanctuaries were to be notified as ESZs.
  • The National Wildlife Action Plan (NWAP) for the 2002-2016 period indicated that areas outside the protected area network are often “vital ecological corridor links and must be protected to prevent isolation of fragments of biodiversity which will not survive in the long run.”
  • In 2011, the MoEFCC issued guidelines to declare ESZs, with an indicative list of prohibited, regulated or promoted activities.
  • Forest departments of respective state governments are supposed to prepare site-specific ESZ proposals for each PA within their respective states and then forward them to the MoEFCC.
  • After due scrutiny of such proposals, the MoEFCC issues a draft notification, inviting suggestions and objections from people likely to be affected.
  • Such objections and suggestions are to be submitted within 60 days after the publication of the draft notification in a Central government gazette.
  • The MoEFCC seeks the concerned state’s response to such suggestions and objections.
  • Then, based on the recommendation of an expert committee of ESZ of the MoEFCC, the ministry issues a final ESZ notification.
Source- Indian Express

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