Context:

• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notified the eco-sensitive zone of the Assam’s Deepar Beel Wildlife Sanctuary.
• But being adjacent to “fast-developing Guwahati”, the sanctuary is “facing immense biotic pressure by way of human settlements and ever-increasing development activities.

About Deepar Beel:

• It is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Assam and the State’s only Ramsar site besides being an Important Bird Area.
• The wetland has for decades been threatened by a railway track — set to be doubled and electrified — on its southern rim, a garbage dump, and encroachment from human habitation and commercial units.
• Deepar Beel has long been used as a sponge for Guwahati’s sewage via a couple of streams.
• It is a permanent freshwater lake, in a former channel of the Brahmaputra River, to the south of the main river.

Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs)

• Also known as Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFAs) are areas in India notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India 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.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/assams-deepar-beel-wildlife-sanctuary-breathes-easy-after-eco-sensitive-zone-notification/article36133229.ece?utm_source=energy-and-environment&utm_medium=sticky_footer

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