In June 2022, the Supreme Court directed that every protected forest, national park and wildlife sanctuary across the country should have a mandatory eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of a minimum ______ starting from their demarcated boundaries.

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

SSC CGL 2022 Tier-I Official Paper (Held On : 06 Dec 2022 Shift 1)

Answer 1

The correct answer is 1 km.

Key Points:

The Supreme Court mandated an eco-sensitive zone of at least one kilometre starting from each national park and wildlife sanctuary in the country in an order that was published on June 3, 2022.
The decision was taken in response to a petition to protect forested regions in Tamil Nadu's Nilgiris district.
This decision nullifies the ESZ border limit around protected areas, as the Supreme Court previously declared.
All states and Union Territories where the minimum ESZ extent is not stated would also be subject to it.
Due to ideological differences between the federal and state administrations as well as between the states and their respective states, India does not have a statute that mandates the maintenance of the eco-sensitive zone surrounding its protected area.

Additional Information:

Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) and Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFAs) are related words (EFAs).
The MoEFCC declares regions close to national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and protected areas as eco-sensitive zones.
ESZs act as a kind of "shock absorber" for protected areas by regulating and monitoring activity inside and outside of them.
The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) asserts that any limitations should only be required when absolutely necessary and that the creation of eco-sensitive zones must be site-specific.