According to the Down To Earth, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered all encroachments to be removed from Gujarat’s Banni grasslands within six months.
- The NGT also directed a joint committee to prepare an action plan in a month.
- Banni Pashu Uchherak Maldhari Sangthan (BPUMS) had filed a case against the rampant encroachment in the ecologically-sensitive grassland in May, 2018.
- The NGT also directed that the Maldharis will continue to hold the right to conserve the community forests in the area, granted to them as per the provisions in Section 3 of Forest Rights Act, 2006.
- The Maldharis, the nomadic pastoralist community of the region, livelihoods are depend on this protected shrub-savanna, welcomed the move.
About Banni grassland
- Banni grassland is spread over 2,618 kilometre and account for almost 45 per cent of the pastures in Gujarat.
- The grassland comprises 48 hamlets / villages organised into 19 panchayats, with a population of about 40,000.
- Two ecosystems, wetlands and grasslands, are juxtaposed in Banni.
- The Banni is a “unique” grassland ecosystem because large parts of it are “inherently saline”.
- It also lists several grass species – such as Urochondra setulosa – which are common only in the highly saline soils of the Banni.
