ESZ: Bhupender Yadav assures filing of review petition in Supreme Court

Idukki: Centre would approach the Supreme Court seeking a review of its recent verdict on the Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZ) and said there are certain things which “must be cleared by the court,” said Union Minister for Environment and Forest Bhupender Yadav on Friday.

The top court had, on June 3, pronounced the verdict to create a one-km eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) around all wildlife sanctuaries and national parks, which is generally considered to affect normal life of people living in such areas of the southern State for decades.

“Our ministry and our government is filing a review petition especially again to revisit Section 44 (A) and 44 (E) of the judgement,” the minister said in his keynote address at a programme organised to mark the World Elephant Day celebrations at the Periyar National Park in this hill district. He said the government had already announced that under the specific policy, the ecological sensitive zones were declared with proper care and public consultation was already had. “So, there are some things which must be cleared by the court…matter is sub judice… but I assure you that we will file a review petition. We are able to convince the court about the genuineness, about the validity and about the ground situation, which is coming about the reading of the judgement,” Yadav said. State Forest Minister A K Saseendran recently visited Yadav seeking exemption for inhabited areas while implementing its recent verdict on eco-sensitive zones. On the increasing wild boar menace in the state, he said several people from the southern state are approaching him with the issue and the ministry has already issued guidelines regarding the human wildlife conflict in February 2021. “We have already given power to the Chief Wildlife warden of Kerala under Section 11 of the Wildlife Protection Act. I believe he must be exercising this power for the mitigation of this problem. So, they have already used that power and I again reiterated that power is there under Section 11 for a particular, specific purpose,” he said. Yadav said he has met several representatives from Kerala, of the various committees, societies, political parties and religious institutions also, with regard to declaring Western Ghats as an eco-sensitive zone. He said the Centre has already appointed a committee under the chairmanship of former Director General (DG) of Forests Sanjay Kumar and the panel has been directed to go through the holistic approaches of the Kasturirangan and Gadgil committees in their report. “I am glad to inform all of you that the Government of India is committed. We have constituted the committee under the chairmanship of Sanjay Kumar…We told them to go through the holistic approaches of the Kasturirangan and Gadgil committees and definitely they will consider the representations by the people also,” he said. On the issue of using elephants for religious purposes, the union minister said the Centre has amended the Wildlife Protection Act in which there is a provision that the captive use of jumbos for religious purposes would be continued with certain guidelines of the Government of India and the Ministry of Environment and Forest.

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