The Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) has issued a draft notification, demarcating an area of 1 km up to 2.035 km around the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary on the Haryana side as an ESZ.
Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary
- The Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary is under the administrative control of the Union territory of Chandigarh and shares its boundaries with Haryana and Punjab. It spreads over 25.98 square km (about 6420 acres).
- The sanctuary is located in the Shivalik foothills, which are considered ecologically sensitive and geologically unstable.
- Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary is home to at least seven Schedule 1 animal species of the Wildlife Act, including leopard, Indian pangolin, sambar, golden jackal, king cobra, python, and monitor lizard.
ESZ notification
- In order to manage and conserve biodiversity across the Protected Areas, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notifies Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) around the Protected Areas under sections 6 and 25 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
- As part of wildlife conservation strategy, in the year 2002, it was decided that an area around each Protected Areas, requires to be notified as Eco-Sensitive Zone for creating a buffer as further protection around Protected Areas (PAs).
- Projects/activities in notified Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) around the Protected Areas are regulated and governed by the concerned ESZ notification.
- The apex court in 2022 also placed the minimum ESZ at 1 km from the demarcated boundary of (all) protected areas. Later, however, demarcation of ESZs was made “area-specific” by the top court while maintaining a blanket ban on mining.
