Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs)

An Eco-Sensitive Zone, or ESZ, is a belt of land around a national park or a wildlife sanctuary where harmful activities are controlled. Think of it as a shock absorber or a protective cushion around a protected forest. People can still live, farm and work inside an ESZ. But activities that can damage the protected area next door, like mining or polluting factories, are banned or regulated there.

Why do we need ESZs?

A national park or sanctuary has a fixed boundary on a map. But animals, rivers and pollution do not follow map lines. If a stone quarry or a chemical factory runs right next to the boundary, its dust, noise, waste water and traffic enter the park. Elephants and tigers also walk out of parks and need safe passages.

An ESZ creates a transition zone, a middle area, between the strictly protected core and the busy, open land outside. This reduces damage to wildlife and also reduces clashes between people and animals.

Where did the idea come from?

The story has these main steps:

• 21 January 2002: At its 21st meeting, the Indian Board for Wildlife adopted the Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 2002. One point said that land within 10 km of the boundaries of national parks and sanctuaries should be notified as "eco-fragile zones" under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
• National Wildlife Action Plan (2002-2016): It repeated the same 10 km idea.
• States objected: Many states said a blanket 10 km belt would cover towns and even cities. So the idea moved slowly.
• Supreme Court push (2006): In the Goa Foundation v. Union of India case, the Supreme Court (orders of 30 January 2006 and 16 October 2006, and a decision of 4 December 2006) pushed the Environment Ministry and the states to send their ESZ proposals quickly.
• 9 February 2011: The Ministry of Environment and Forests issued the Guidelines for Declaration of Eco-Sensitive Zones around National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries. These said the width of an ESZ should depend on the site; it does not have to be 10 km everywhere.

What is the legal basis?

There is no separate "ESZ Act". ESZs are notified by the Central Government (the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, MoEFCC) using its powers under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Section 3 of this Act lets the Centre restrict areas where industries or activities can be carried out, and Rule 5 of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 explains how this is done. So an ESZ is a rule made by the Union government, not by the state.

How does an ESZ get notified?

Step by step:

1. The state forest department studies the area around a park or sanctuary and draws the proposed ESZ boundary.
2. The state sends this proposal to the MoEFCC.
3. An Expert Committee in the Ministry examines it.
4. The Ministry publishes a draft notification and invites objections and suggestions from the public, usually for 60 days.
5. After considering the objections, the Ministry issues the final notification in the Gazette.
6. The state then prepares a Zonal Master Plan, a land-use plan for the whole ESZ showing farms, settlements, water bodies and wildlife corridors.
7. A Monitoring Committee is set up for each ESZ to check that the rules are followed. It usually includes forest officials, the State Pollution Control Board, ecology experts and NGO members.

How wide is an ESZ?

The 2011 guidelines say the width can vary from park to park. On one side it may be 10 km, on another side only a few hundred metres. Where a park sits next to a state border, a sea or a big river, there may be no ESZ on that side at all. Areas beyond 10 km can also be included if they hold important wildlife corridors.

What is allowed and what is not?

Every ESZ notification sorts activities into three lists:

• Prohibited: commercial mining, stone quarrying and crushing units, setting up polluting industries, major hydroelectric projects, commercial use of firewood, and discharge of untreated waste into water or land.
• Regulated (allowed with permission and safeguards): felling of trees, new hotels and resorts, widening of roads, overhead electric cables, commercial extraction of groundwater.
• Permitted: ongoing farming and horticulture, rainwater harvesting, use of renewable energy, and normal activities of local people.

What did the Supreme Court say in 2022 and 2023?

In T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India, the Supreme Court on 3 June 2022 ordered that every national park and wildlife sanctuary must have an ESZ of at least 1 km from its boundary. It also said no permanent structure would be allowed in this belt and that mining inside parks and sanctuaries, and within 1 km of them, cannot be allowed.

Many states, especially hilly ones like Kerala, said this would affect thousands of homes and towns. On 26 April 2023, the Court changed its order. The 1 km rule would not apply to ESZs where a draft or final notification had already been issued, or where proposals had already reached the Ministry. The Court accepted that ESZs must be site-specific, not uniform.

But it kept the ban on mining within 1 km of protected areas, and it clarified that mining is banned inside an ESZ even when the ESZ is wider than 1 km.

India's position

By the Ministry's count, several hundred final ESZ notifications have been issued (one widely cited figure is 347 [Unverified]). Examples in Karnataka include the ESZ around the Kappatagudda Wildlife Sanctuary. Many ESZs in the Western Ghats sit inside or next to the much larger Western Ghats ESA proposed by the Centre.

Commonly confused concepts

• ESZ vs ESA: An ESZ is a buffer around one national park or sanctuary. An Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) is a large region marked as fragile on its own merit, not because it surrounds a park (for example, the Western Ghats ESA covering about 56,825 sq km across six states). Both are notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
• ESZ vs Protected Area: A Protected Area (national park, wildlife sanctuary, conservation reserve, community reserve) is created under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and rules inside it are strict. An ESZ lies outside the Protected Area and is lighter in its rules.
• ESZ vs Notified Forest: A Notified Forest is land declared as Reserved or Protected Forest under the Indian Forest Act, 1927 (or a state forest law). Its land status itself is "forest". An ESZ does not change the land status. A private farm inside an ESZ stays a private farm.
• ESZ vs buffer zone of a tiger reserve: A tiger reserve has a core and a buffer under Section 38V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. That buffer is part of the tiger reserve. An ESZ is a separate notification under a different law.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Fear and confusion among residents: People often believe an ESZ will take away their land or stop farming. Clear maps and local-language information can remove these fears.
• Delays: For years, many parks had no final ESZ, which is why the Supreme Court had to step in.
• Weak monitoring: Monitoring Committees often meet rarely, and Zonal Master Plans are delayed in many states.
• Small widths: Critics say some states propose very thin ESZs, sometimes almost zero, which defeats the purpose.
• Way forward: Experts suggest site-specific widths based on science, ground-level mapping of villages, real participation of Gram Sabhas, and benefits for local people (such as eco-tourism income) so that they see conservation as a gain, not a loss.

Concepts to Know

• National park and wildlife sanctuary: Two types of protected forests under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. A national park has stricter rules (no grazing or private rights inside); a sanctuary allows some regulated human activities.
• Gazette notification: The official way the government announces a new rule. Once printed in the Gazette of India, it has legal force.
• Wildlife corridor: A strip of forest or natural land that connects two habitats, so that animals can move safely between them.
• Zonal Master Plan: A land-use map and plan for an ESZ that shows what each piece of land is used for and what can happen there.