Centre’s revised draft for Gir forest proposes reduction in size of eco-sensitive zone

The Gir Protected Area is divided into the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary (GWLS), Gir National Park (GNP), Paniya Wildlife Sanctuary (PWLS) and Mitiyala Wildlife Sanctuary (MWLS) in Junagadh, Gir Somnath and Amreli districts of Saurashtra.

Over the past one-and-a-half decades, Gir has witnessed an eco-tourism boom, leading to a consequent boom in hospitality and allied industries. The areas surrounding Gir are also rich in minerals like limestone, black trap and sand, which are primarily construction material. Conservationists and wildlife activists have long been demanding a notified ESZ around the Gir Protected Area for regulating undesirable activities detrimental to wildlife and to provide a buffer to the increasing numbers of wild animals.

For the lack of a notified ESZ, a 10 km area extending outwards from the Gir PA boundary is treated as effective ESZ, as per the Supreme Court guidelines.

However, the Centre set the ball rolling again for notifying an ESZ. In an extraordinary gazette dated September 18, 2024, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) published a draft notification,marking  2061.77 sq kms area around Gir and covering 196 villages of Junagadh, Amreli and Gir Somnath districts as ESZ around Gir PA.

The proposed ESZ comprises 1779.32 sq km of revenue areas in these villages but excludes the 32.67 sq km area of gamtal (human settlement area of a village) of 185 villages and also leaves out an equally large area from the purview of ESZ for future expansion of villages.

No commercial mining, stone quarrying or crushing  is permitted in a notified ESZ nor are polluting factories allowed. Establishment of major hydroelectric projects is also prohibited while construction activity is regulated strictly in such zones.As GWL, GNP and PWLS are contiguous, their ESZ extend outward in the range of nil to 9.5 km from their demarcated boundaries. Located 9.5 km north of the GWLS border, Monvel village in Amreli’s Dhari taluka is the farthest point in the draft ESZ around Gir PA.

Ladudi village in Malia taluka of Junagadh on the western fringes of GWLS is the shortest extent in the draft ESZ. The proposed ESZ also covers 163 sq km of riverine areas of 17 rivers, 12.17 sq kms area of Tulshishyam religious place inside GWLS and 107 sq kms of four land corridors used by lions to move from Gir to Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary in the northwest and towards Bhavnagar in the east.

The draft notification covers almost entire courses of rivers like Hiran, Shetrunji, Raval, Shingoda, Machhundri etc with ESZ extending from 250 m to 750 m from beds of these rivers. The draft ESZ will be open to the public’s objections or suggestions for 60 days. The normal procedure is to notify the final ESZ after taking such suggestions and objections into account.  The revised proposal to earmark 2061 sq km as buffer around Gir marks a reduction of more than 1267 sq kms when compared to the draft ESZ notification which was published on October 25, 2016 by the Centre.

The central government had then proposed to notify 3,328 sq km, covering 291 villages as ESZ around Gir PA.  The draft proposed to extend ESZ — up to 17.9 km from the boundary of MWLS — and also included 212 sq kms of raised land in 33 villages and 504 sq kms of notified reserved, protected or unclassified forest area in ESZ.   However, Biren Padhiya, a wildlife activist moved the Gujarat High Court with a public interest notification (PIL) in 2017, alleging proposals were sent to reduce the proposed EZA to just 1140 sq kms only and that at certain locations, it extended up to just 500 metres from the sanctuary boundary.

On April 19, 2017, the HC issued an order, restraining the Centre from issuing any final notification of ESZ on the basis of draft ESZ notification published on October 25, 2016. However,  while hearing the PIL in July 2023, the HC allowed the state government to send fresh proposal for Gir PA ESZ. Accordingly, the state government sent another revised draft, proposing a buffer area smaller than the 2016 notification but larger than the 2017 proposal. The latest draft notification is based on the third proposal sent by the state government.

“There were protests, especially from Amreli against including vast swathes of revenue land and rivers in ESZ. Sand mining is an important commercial activity in Amreli and a source of revenue for the government. Experts have opined that the rate of replenishment of sand in Shetrunji is one foot per annum. Therefore, some stretches of the river course have not been included in the revised draft ESZ,” a government officer told The Indian Express, adding, “However, the revised draft is silent about reserved forest and unclassified forest tracts and this can invite trouble in future.”