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Context

• The Supreme Court, modified its judgment to have mandatory eco-sensitive zones (ESZ) of a minimum one kilometre around protected forests, national parks and wildlife sanctuaries across the country.

Details

• The reasoned that ESZ cannot be uniform across the country and has to be “protected area-specific”.

Background

• On June 3, 2022, the court had ordered the one-km buffer zone for protected areas to act as a “shock absorber”.
• However, the Centre and several States, including Kerala, had returned to the court seeking modification of the June 2022 judgment, saying the judicial direction affected hundreds of villages on the peripheries of forests.

Highlights of the court’s decision

• The purpose of declaring ESZs is not to hamper the day-to-day activities of the citizens.
• The court said a stringent observance of the June 2022 judgment would cause more harm than good. For one, man-animal conflict would only increase rather than abate.
• However, the court made it clear that “mining within the national park and wildlife sanctuary and within an area of one kilometre from the boundary of such national park and wildlife sanctuary shall not be permissible”.

MUST READ ARTICLE:

Eco-Sensitive Zone: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/eco-sensitive-zone-esz-19

https://epaper.thehindu.com/ccidist-ws/th/th_delhi/issues/34046/OPS/GIGB5KQ44.1+GQJB5LGJ5.1.html

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