Wildlife board concern over ESZ provision violations by states

Nagpur: The Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), the country’s topmost body deciding on wildlife clearances to projects falling in tiger corridors and protected areas (PAs), expressed concern over states’ violation of provisions of eco-sensitive zones (ESZs) by not notifying and implementing them.The issue was raised in the 78th Standing Committee meeting on February 22 chaired by Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav. NBWL was told that preparation of the zonal master plan (ZMP) for the ESZ is normally not prepared. The top-most panel also flayed the states for not following ESZ provisions leading to man-animal conflict. It has asked states for landscape-level planning.The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) notifies ESZ around the PAs under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The ministry issues notification and regulates developmental activities within ESZ as per the directive of the apex court. “The notification of an ESZ contains various provisions but none of them are implemented on the ground,” MoEFCC officials said.They said preparation of the zonal master plan (ZMP) for the ESZ is normally ignored by the nodal agency and state governments don’t prepare ZMP. The states are also not working on the availability of resources for implementing an action plan in the ESZ for the development, restoration, and conservation of habitats for the benefit of people and wildlife.“There is a provision for the monitoring committee to implement and monitor provisions as mentioned in the notification, but it is non-functional. The MoEFCC has provided guidelines that are used for regulating development activities. This needs modification in the present context,” said forest officials.To date, ESZs have not been prepared for many PAs as states are not sensitive to the issues. Also, nodal agencies at the Central government and state governments do not take cognizance of the provisions as mentioned in the notification.For example Maharashtra, which is one of the leading states when it comes to declaring ESZs. However, the district collectors have been ignorant about preparing zonal master plans (ZMPs) which regulate detrimental activities around these ecosystems.The meeting stressed on preparing ZMPs for all the ESZs. One of the members, R Sukumar, suggested the need to move towards landscape-level conservation planning. “The ESZs are part of broader landscape-level planning for conservation in the country. The subject of human-wildlife conflict also requires detailed deliberations,” he said and suggested focused discussions on policy issues for setting the course of conservation in the future.Yadav said that with increase in population and rising infrastructure development, a lot of problems are coming up. He sought a meeting to address the issue of human-wildlife conflict.After discussions, the Standing Committee decided that the ministry shall take opinions and suggestions from the state forest departments on landscape-level conservation planning, matters related to the implementation of provisions contained in the ESZ notifications, and human-wildlife conflict.