Section 37: Biodiversity Heritage Sites

In one line

A biodiversity heritage site is a protected area created by a State Government on the recommendation of its Biodiversity Board, and it can be declared over land nobody has taken away from anybody.

In exam wording: section 37(1) of the Biological Diversity Act 2002, as substituted in 2023, provides that without prejudice to any other law, the State Government may, based on the recommendations of the State Biodiversity Board, notify in the Official Gazette areas of biodiversity importance as biodiversity heritage sites, with a proviso requiring the Board to consult the local body and the Biodiversity Management Committee concerned before making the recommendation; section 37(2) permits the State Government, in consultation with the Central Government, to frame rules for their management and conservation; and section 37(3) requires the State Government to frame schemes for compensating or rehabilitating any person or section of people economically affected by the notification.

Why the law has this at all

The Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972 makes a protected area by extinguishing or acquiring rights. Chapter IV requires a Collector, a proclamation, an inquiry and acquisition, and it takes years. That is right for a large forest and wrong for a sacred grove of two hectares, a village pond, or a hill with an unusual assemblage of orchids.

Section 37 answers that. It is short, it is administered by the State, and its central feature is that it does not extinguish rights. Instead of acquisition, section 37(3) provides compensation or rehabilitation for those economically affected.

Broken down

Who declares. The State Government, by notification in the Official Gazette.

On whose recommendation. The State Biodiversity Board.

After consulting whom. The proviso, inserted in 2023, requires the Board to consult the local body and the Biodiversity Management Committee concerned before making the recommendation. Before 2024 the section required the State Government to act "in consultation with the local bodies", and the amendment moved the consultation to the recommending stage and added the Committee.

Over what. Areas of biodiversity importance. The section sets no criteria, which is a real weakness and a fair criticism.

Subject to what. "Without prejudice to any other law for the time being in force". So a heritage site notification does not displace the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972 or the forest statutes; it sits alongside them.

Managed how. Rules framed by the State Government in consultation with the Central Government under section 37(2).

Paid for by whom. Section 37(3) requires the State Government to frame schemes for compensating or rehabilitating any person or section of people economically affected. Section 32 makes the State Biodiversity Fund applicable, among other things, to compensating or rehabilitating a section of people economically affected by a notification under section 37(2).