PROTECTED AREA UPDATE
No. 36 & 37 June 2002

News and Information from protected areas in India and South Asia

EDITORIAL

NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES

ASSAM

NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA

SOUTH ASIA

BANGLADESH

NEPAL

INTERNATIONAL

OPPURTUNITIES

WHAT'S AVAILABLE?

UPCOMING

READER'S RESPONSES

EDITORIAL

Eco Sensitive Zones: What is the potential?

Two new areas in Maharashtra have recently been declared as Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZ) under Section 3 (2) (v) of the Environment Protection Act (EPA) -1986. The PA Update has reported the developments regarding ESZs
regularly, including this time. It is no coincidence that the two areas so declared, Mahabaleshwar and Matheran, are both important and popular tourist resorts in the Western Ghats, have a substantial forest cover and support
good wildlife populations. At the same time these places like many other hill resorts in the country are under severe threat from urbanisation, concretisation, and unplanned, unbridled growth. If this is not checked or regulated in some way, it will certainly and adversely impact those very attributes that make these places so attractive in the first place. Is there then a viable solution, to ensuring that these hill stations and their environments survive and that business and livelihoods that thrive here are not affected too? It needs a pragmatic outlook and approach and one that needs to address multiple constituencies and stake holders. In this particular case, as in many similar others, the EPA probably provides that framework for exactly this kind of situation. Declaring an area an ESZ or an Eco Sensitive Area is an available tool within the present legal and policy framework that has probably not been used enough. It allows for looking at large areas, allows for a multiplicity of human and economic activities to continue, but also allows for the restriction and complete stoppage of the more drastic and severe problems faced by places like Mahabaleshwar and Matheran. It is not a perfect tool, and just like any other tool has its own respective limitations. However, it certainly offers a space that can and should be used. And it can be pretty successful too, as has been seen from another area in
Maharashtra, the Dahanu taluka which was declared a ESZ (its called Ecologically Fragile Area here) in 1991. Activists and locals admit that protecting this area under the EPA has played a very important role in keeping alive the green cover here and importantly keeping away large scale industrial development that has destroyed surrounding areas. Instrumental in ensuring this has been the work of the Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection
Authority (DTEPA), that has the responsibility of the ESZ. Unfortunately now, concerted efforts are being made to get the Authority desolved. This needs to be opposed, and at the same time, efforts needed to be made to
increase this protective network.

These attempts are being made, the more notable ones being for a large ESZ covering the western ghats in parts of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra and a more recent order of the Supreme Court asking for the declaring the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as an ESZ.

In the wildlife conservation context too, it is important to note that the ESZ allows us to legally enforce sustainable land use over larger landscapes, something that is not available within the provisions of the present Wildlife Protection Act (WLPA). An ESZ can be used as a complimentary tool of conservation along with protected areas. This infact, has even been included in the Wildlife Conservation Strategy 2002 which suggests that lands falling within 10 km. of the boundaries of National Parks and Sanctuaries should be notified as eco-fragile zones under provisions of the EPA. This could be a vital lifeline, particularly for the areas buffering our protected areas and in protecting important migratory corridors.

The ESZ is a valuable tool that we should try and use creatively and certainly more extensively.

Kalpavriksh,
Apt. 5, Shri Dutta Krupa,
908 Deccan Gymkhana,
Pune 411004, India
Tel: 91 20 5654239
Fax: 91 20 5654239
Email: kvriksh@vsnl.com