What May Not Be Done Inside a Sanctuary

In one line

Five classes of person may enter without a permit, everyone else needs one, and the Explanation to section 29 is the sentence that lets a village go on living there.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 27 confines entry and residence to a public servant on duty, a person permitted by the Chief Wild Life Warden to reside there, a person having a right over immovable property within the limits, a person passing along a public highway, and the dependants of the first three, everyone else needing a permit under section 28; section 29 forbids destroying, exploiting or removing any wild life including forest produce, damaging or diverting the habitat, and diverting, stopping or enhancing the flow of water into or outside the sanctuary, except under a permit which may be granted only if the State Government, in consultation with the National Board, is satisfied it is necessary for the improvement and better management of wild life.

Who may be there

Section 27(1), the five exceptions. A public servant on duty; a person permitted by the Chief Wild Life Warden or the authorised officer to reside within the limits; a person who has any right over immovable property within the limits; a person passing through along a public highway; and the dependants of the first three. Everybody else must have a section 28 permit.

Clause (c) is the one that matters for the rights question. A person with a right over immovable property inside the sanctuary may enter and reside as of right, and after the settlement under section 24(2)(c) such rights may have been allowed to continue. So a sanctuary is not, in law, an emptied place.

Section 27(2), the duties of a resident. So long as he resides in the sanctuary he is bound to prevent the commission of an offence; to help in discovering and arresting the offender where there is reason to believe an offence has been committed; to report the death of any wild animal and safeguard its remains until the Chief Wild Life Warden or authorised officer takes charge; to extinguish any fire of which he has knowledge and to prevent a fire in the vicinity from spreading, by any lawful means in his power; and to assist any forest officer, Chief Wild Life Warden, Wild Life Warden or police officer demanding his aid.

That list is section 79 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927, reproduced for a sanctuary, and the same criticism applies: the duty to inform and to assist is imposed on the person whose home it is.

Section 27(3): no person shall, with intent to cause damage to a boundary-mark or to cause wrongful gain, alter, destroy, move or deface it. Section 27(4): no person shall tease or molest any wild animal or litter the grounds of the sanctuary.