The Supreme Court has directed that every protected forest, national park and wildlife sanctuary across the country should have a mandatory ESZ of a minimum one km starting from their demarcated boundaries.
It is to create some kind of a “shock absorber” for the protected areas.
These zones would act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to those involving lesser protection.
The Centre had come out with February 2011 guidelines on ESZ.
It had prescribed a 10-kilometre boundary based on responses received from states and UTs.
The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 does not mention the word “Eco-Sensitive Zones”.
An ESZ could go up to 10 kilometres around a protected area as provided in the Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 2002.