Eco-Sensitive Zones as a Control Technique

In one line

An eco-sensitive zone is a belt around a protected area declared by notification under section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, in which some activities are prohibited, some regulated and the rest permitted.

Where the power comes from

Section 3(1) and 3(2)(v) of the Act of 1986, the power to take all such measures as the Central Government deems necessary and to restrict areas in which any industries, operations or processes shall not be carried out or shall be carried out subject to safeguards.

With rule 5 of the Environment (Protection) Rules 1986, which sets out the factors to be considered in prohibiting or restricting the location of industries and the carrying on of processes in different areas, and, in sub-rule (3), the requirement of a draft notification with sixty days for objections.

And the same power carries the Coastal Regulation Zone. The coastal notification and the eco-sensitive zone notification are two applications of one section, and it is worth saying so in an answer: India's principal instrument of environmental land use control is section 3 of the Act of 1986, and it operates by notification.

What a zone is for

It is a buffer. A protected area under the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972 has a boundary, and the harm that reaches it comes from outside: a quarry beyond the fence, a hotel on the approach road, a highway, an industry, lights and noise. A national park with an unregulated edge is a park whose interior is being degraded from outside.

It is also a transition. The purpose is not to extend the park but to create a zone of lower impact between the protected area and the ordinary landscape, so that the change is graded rather than abrupt.

And it is a shock absorber for wildlife and for people. Animals move across a boundary and so do the people who live beside it, and the zone is where the terms of that movement are settled.

What a zone notification contains

Each zone is declared by its own notification and they follow a common pattern.

The extent. The boundary, described by village and survey number and by a distance from the boundary of the protected area, with a map.

A Zonal Master Plan, to be prepared by the State Government within a stated period, integrated with the district and town planning instruments, and approved by the State Government.

Three lists of activities.

• Prohibited: commonly commercial mining, stone quarrying and crushing, setting up of polluting industries, establishment of major hydroelectric projects, use or production of hazardous substances, discharge of untreated effluent, and new saw mills or brick kilns.
• Regulated: felling of trees, establishment of hotels and resorts, commercial use of natural water resources including groundwater, erection of electrical cables, drastic change of agricultural systems, and the widening of roads.
• Permitted: ongoing agriculture and horticulture by local communities, rainwater harvesting, organic farming, adoption of green technology and use of renewable energy.