PROTECTED AREAS

1. Context

Ecologically sensitive zones (ESZ) are intended to safeguard 'protected areas'-national parks and wildlife sanctuaries by transitioning from an area of lower protection to an area of higher protection. However, the creation of these zones has provoked protests in Kerela and some other regions, in a precursor to what is likely to emerge in other parts of the country.

2. What are Protected Areas?

Protected areas are those where human occupation or resource exploitation is restricted.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) provided the widely accepted definition across regional and global frameworks in its categorization guidelines for protected areas.
There are various types of protected areas, with varying levels of protection depending on each country's enabling laws or the regulations of the international organisations involved.
National Parks, Sanctuaries, Conservation / Community Reserves, and Tiger Reserves are all types of protected areas in India. Reserved Forests are not included.
The Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 (WLPA) established the concept of a protected area (PA).
The term "protected area" also refers to Marine Protected Areas, the boundaries of which will include some area of ocean, as well as Transboundary Protected Areas, which overlap multiple countries and remove borders within the area for conservation and economic purposes.

3. What are Eco-Sensitive Zones?

Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) or Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFAs) are areas notified by the MoEFCC around Protected Areas, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
The purpose of declaring ESZs is to create some kind of “shock absorbers” to the protected areas by regulating and managing the activities around such areas.
They also act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to areas involving lesser protection.
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.
Moreover, in the case where sensitive corridors, connectivity and ecologically important patches, crucial for landscape linkage, are beyond 10 km width, these should be included in the ESZs.

4. Size of Eco-Sensitive Zone

According to the Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 2002, an ESZ might extend up to 10 kilometres surrounding a protected area.
In the case of vulnerable corridors, accessibility, and biologically essential patches critical for landscape connection, regions wider than 10 km can be incorporated into the eco-sensitive area.
Furthermore, even within the framework of a specific Protected Area, the distribution of an ESZ and the level of regulation may not be consistent throughout, and it may be of varied breadth and extent.

5. Importance of Eco-Sensitive Zones

Eco-sensitive zones would reduce the effect of industrialization and other development activities.
The protected areas are managed using the core and buffer strategy, which also protects and benefits local populations.
Eco-sensitive areas encircling protected areas, animal refuges, and national parks act as a ‘Shock Absorber.’
An ESZ assists in in-situ conservation, which is concerned with protecting an endangered species in its natural environment, such as Kaziranga National Park in Assam, which protects one-horned rhinos.
Eco-Sensitive Zones reduce deforestation and human-animal conflict.

6. How FRA is being implemented?

By bringing in the FRA, lawmakers were trying to undo a historic injustice done to the forest dwelling community of India.
The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) reckoned in 2009 itself that doing so would mean handing over at least four lakh sq. km -more than half of India’s notified forest area -to village-level institutions. But as of June 2022, only 64,873.70 sq. km- or 16%- has come under the FRA.

7. What is the Problem?

Signifcantly, parts of the ESZs in ten States- Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana- fall within the Scheduled Areas notifed under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.
Such Scheduled Areas cover over 11% of the country’s land area and are thickly forested and mountainous.
They are preponderantly populated by Scheduled Tribe groups and are notified by the President under Article 244 where the Provisions of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) 1996 apply.
The PESA recognises habitation-level gram sabhas to be competent to safeguard and preserve community resources on forest and revenue lands in Scheduled Areas.
The MoEFCC has shown no in-clination to amend the Indian Forest Act 1927, the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 (under which ESZs are notified) to comply with the PESA and FRA.
In fact, in the Forest Conservation Rules, compliance with the FRA, recognition of forest rights and the gram sabha’s consent were preconditions for considering proposals to divert forest land for non-forestry purposes -until the MoEFCC did away with them in 2022.
The Ministry has also overlooked demands by the National Commission fo Scheduled Tribes to restore the erstwhile FRA compliance procedure.

8. What has led to the Protest?

Recently, the Supreme Court directed that every protected forest, national park and wildlife sanctuary across the country should have a mandatory eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of a minimum one km starting from their demarcated boundaries.
Secondly, the Court vested the powers to ensure compliance with the guidelines with the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) and the Home Secretary of the State/UT.
The PCCF was to make a list of all structures within the ESZs and report it to the Supreme Court within three months (this is yet to be done).
The Court also ordered that no new permanent structure could come up for any purpose within an ESZ.
This effectively meant that all the activities permitted by the guidelines and which are already being carried out can continue only if the PCCF grants permission, and that too within six months of the court’s order.
This period has already expired. Additionally, the Court’s directions have put the lives of many people in the hands of the PCCF-whose authority now extends beyond the forest to revenue lands falling within an ESZ. This has led to protests in Kerala.

For Prelims: Ecologically sensitive zones (ESZ), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Indian Forest Act 1927, the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 .

For Mains:

1.How an Eco-sensitive Zone is Declared and discuss the need for eco-sensitive zone around the protected areas?

Source: The Hindu

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