Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESAs) and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986

An Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) is a piece of land that the Central Government marks out as very fragile and very valuable for nature. Inside it, harmful activities like mining, quarrying or polluting factories are banned or strictly controlled. People can still live and farm there. The idea is not to lock nature away, but to stop the kind of damage that cannot be undone.

Why do we need ESAs?

Some places are like the "water tanks" and "safety walls" of a region. Hill forests hold soil in place, store rainwater and feed rivers. If you cut the forest and dig quarries on steep slopes, the hills can slide down in heavy rain and the rivers can dry up in summer. Normal protected areas like National Parks cover only small patches. ESAs let the government protect a much larger landscape without throwing people out of their homes.

Where does the power come from?

ESAs are created under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (EPA). Parliament passed this law after the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984. It is an "umbrella" law that gives the Central Government wide powers to protect the environment.

• Section 3(1) lets the Centre take all measures it thinks necessary to protect and improve the environment.
• Section 3(2)(v) lets the Centre restrict the areas in which certain industries, operations or processes cannot be carried out, or can be carried out only with safeguards. This is the direct legal base for ESAs.
• Rule 5(1) of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 lists what the Centre must consider before such a restriction. This includes the biological diversity of the area, the pollution load it can take, environmentally compatible land use, and nearness to protected areas.

Note: the words "ESA" or "eco-sensitive" do not appear in the Act itself. The concept was built on top of these general powers.

How did the idea grow?

India used these powers area by area. Some early examples:

• Doon Valley (Uttarakhand), 1989: restrictions on mining and industries in the valley.
• Dahanu Taluka (Maharashtra), 1991: declared ecologically fragile to protect its coast and orchards from heavy industry.
• Aravalli range (parts of Haryana and Rajasthan), 1992: some activities in the Aravallis needed prior permission.
• Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani (2001), Matheran (2003) and Mount Abu (2009): hill stations given ESA status.

In 2000, the Pronab Sen Committee, set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, defined "ecological sensitivity" and gave a list of primary and auxiliary criteria for identifying ESAs. Later notifications followed this format.

How does an ESA get notified?

The process runs like this:

1. An expert body or the state proposes an area, with maps and a list of villages.
2. The MoEFCC publishes a draft notification in the Gazette.
3. The public and states get 60 days to send objections and suggestions.
4. The Ministry studies the replies, discusses with states and then issues the final notification.
5. The state government and local bodies must then enforce the rules, usually through a monitoring committee.

If a draft is not finalised in time, it lapses and must be issued again. This is exactly what has happened again and again with the Western Ghats.

What is usually banned or controlled inside an ESA?

It depends on each notification, but typically:

• Banned: mining, quarrying, sand mining, new highly polluting ("Red category") industries, new thermal power plants, very large townships.
• Regulated: hydropower, roads, tourism, big buildings; these need careful approval.
• Allowed: farming, plantations, houses, schools, hospitals and normal village life.

Commonly confused concepts

• ESA vs Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ): Both use the same Section 3 powers. An ESZ is a buffer ring around a specific National Park or Wildlife Sanctuary, like a "shock absorber" for it. An ESA can be a large landscape on its own, like a hill range or a coastal taluka, with no single park at its centre.
• ESZ width rule: On 3 June 2022, the Supreme Court (in the T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad forest case) ordered that every National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary must have an ESZ of at least 1 km. On 26 April 2023, it modified this order. The 1 km rule no longer applies where the MoEFCC has already issued draft or final ESZ notifications or received proposals, or to parks on inter-state borders.
• ESA vs Protected Area: A National Park or Sanctuary is created under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and human activities inside are tightly restricted. An ESA is created under the EPA, 1986, and people continue to live and work inside.
• ESA vs Critical Wildlife Habitat: A Critical Wildlife Habitat is declared under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, inside National Parks and Sanctuaries, and must be kept "inviolate" for wildlife.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Top-down drawing of maps: Boundaries are often drawn from satellite images in Delhi. Local people feel they had no say, which creates fear and resistance.
• Fear about land and houses: Farmers worry they will not be able to build a house, divide property or sell land. Much of this fear comes from poor communication, since normal farming and housing are usually allowed.
• Weak enforcement: Even where ESAs exist, illegal quarrying and construction continue if local monitoring is weak.
• Centre-state tension: Land is largely a state matter, but ESAs are notified by the Centre. States often delay or oppose them.
• Way forward suggested by experts: ground-truthing (checking maps on the ground), involving gram sabhas in drawing boundaries, clear lists of what is allowed, and payment for ecosystem services (paying local people for protecting forests and water).

Concepts to Know

• Notification: An official order published by the government in the Gazette. A draft notification is a proposal open for comments; a final notification has the force of law.
• Red category industry: The pollution control boards group industries by how much they pollute. Red is the most polluting group (for example, big cement or chemical plants), then Orange, Green and White.
• Buffer zone: An area around a core protected area that reduces the pressure from outside, like the padding around a fragile object in a box.
• Ground-truthing: Checking on the ground whether what a satellite map shows is really there.
• Payment for ecosystem services: Paying people who protect nature, because their forests and rivers give clean water, fertile soil and stable slopes to everyone downstream.