Area around Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary declared Eco-sensitive

The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has issued a notification declaring the area around the boundary of the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary an Eco-Sensitive Zone. This prohibits activities such as commercial mining, setting up of industries, and establishment of major hydro-electric projects.

Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary

Asola-Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary is located on the Southern Delhi Ridge of Aravalli hill range on Delhi-Haryana border. It spreads over Southern Delhi as well as northern parts of Faridabad and Gurugram districts of Haryana state. The name of the sanctuary is derived from the contiguous Asola village in Delhi.

Eco-sensitive zones Legal Provisions

The central government is empowered to declare the eco-sensitive zones under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. Even though the act doesn t explicitly mentions the eco-sensitive zones there are following provisions under the act:

• Section 3(2)(v) of the Act empowers Central Government to restrict areas in which any industries, operations or processes shall not be carried out or shall be carried out subject to certain safeguards
• Section 5 (1) empowers the central government to prohibit or restrict the location of industries and carrying on certain operations or processes on the basis of considerations like the biological diversity of an area, maximum allowable limits of concentration of pollutants for an area, environmentally compatible land use, and proximity to protected areas.

Based on these provisions the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has put in place a comprehensive set of guidelines laying down parameters and criteria for declaring eco-sensitive zones.