Commercial projects in Ranthambore eco-zone against SC orders: RTI reply

KOTA: The Rajasthan forest department has allowed around nine commercial projects in the eco-sensitive zone around the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR) in violation of the Supreme Court orders, according to a right to information (RTI) reply.

In such cases, only the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) can give clearance for the projects, according to the Supreme Court order dated December 4, 2006.

However, the deputy conservator office (DCF) in Sawai Madhopur reportedly allowed construction of eight hotels and one LPG godown without the NBWL clearance, RTI activist and wildlife conversationalist Tapeshwar Singh Bhati said. Bhati had sought a reply on the same from the reserve’s deputy conservator office in 2015.

As per the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF), a 10-km area around a national park or a reserve is by default be taken as an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ), mandating environmental clearances from the NBWL for a commercial project.

“Since the ESZ of the tiger reserve has not been notified yet, a 10-km area from its boundaries ‘by default’ becomes an eco-sensitive zone. However, the department is giving environmental clearance (NoC) for tourism/commercial projects on its own,” he alleged.

Bhati said the clearances for land conversion for the projects of hotels were given between April 1, 2014 and September 2015.

Of the 23 applications filed between August 2014 and December 2015, the department had given environmental clearance to eight hotels and one LPG godown. However, the RTI query revealed that the remaining 14 applications have neither been denied nor granted the NoC.

The department has just mentioned the coordinates of the distance of the land from the reserve for which land conversion permission is sought. Bhati said instead of mentioning the coordinates of the distance of the land from the reserve, the wildlife department should have informed the applicants that such permission could only be given by the NBWL.

Ranthambhore national park field director YK Sahu said that the proposals for declaring ecosensitive zones of the reserve were lying pending before the MoEF. They were most likely to get accepted and hence there had been no violation of the orders, he said.