The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Jharkhand government to notify 126 compartments in the Saranda forest area as a wildlife sanctuary within three months and prohibited any mining activity within a one-km radius of its boundary.
Observing that the state government cannot run away from its duty to declare the extent of 31,468.25 hectares as Saranda Wildlife Sanctuary, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran, however, excluded six compartments designated for mining.
"We direct that the state government shall notify the area comprising of 126 compartments as notified in 1968 notification, excluding six compartments i.e., compartment numbers KP-2, KP-10, KP-11, KP-12, KP-13 and KP-14, as a wildlife sanctuary within a period of three months from the date of this judgment," the bench said.
Compartments are used to divide sanctuaries for administrative purposes.
The court said it has been its consistent view that "mining activities within one km of the protected area will be hazardous to the wildlife. Though in the case of Goa Foundation, the said directions were issued with respect to the State of Goa, we find that such directions need to be issued on a pan-India basis".
"We direct that mining within national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and within an area of one km from boundary of such national park or wildlife sanctuary shall not be permissible," the bench said.
In this matter, the Jharkhand government had initially sought to exclude 57,519.41 hectares of forest land, saying that it was inhabited for centuries by the Ho, Munda, Uraon and allied Adivasi communities.
The state government had argued that the move would help safeguard their forest rights and protect schools and educational institutions already existing within that region.
However, in an affidavit before the top court, the state government submitted that an area of 57,519.41 hectares was erroneously arrived at and the area of 31,468.25 hectares will be notified as a wildlife sanctuary.
The top court rejected the state government's submission and said the provisions contained in Section 24(2)(c) of the provisions of the WPA a and Section 3 read with Section 4(1) of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 amply protect the rights of the tribals and forest dwellers even after declaration of the said area as a wildlife sanctuary.
"The bogey that on declaration of wildlife sanctuary, the habitations and rights of the tribals and traditional forest dwellers will be lost and vital public infrastructures like educational institutions, roads, etc., will have to be demolished is only a figment of imagination of the State.
"Rather than taking such a stand before this court, we are of the considered view that the State should have educated the tribals/forest dwellers residing in the said areas about the rights available to them under the FRA as well as the WPA," the bench said.
The top court directed the Jharkhand government to give wide publicity to the fact that by this judgment, neither the individual rights nor the community rights of the tribals and the forest dwellers in the said area would be adversely affected.
"The State shall also give wide publicity to the fact that in view of the provision of Section 3 read with sub-Section (1) of Section 4 of the FRA all the rights of the tribals and the forest dwellers both individually as well as of community shall stand protected," it said.
Earlier, the bench had asked the Jharkhand government to take a decision to declare the ecologically rich Saranda region as a reserve forest.
The matter pertained to a long-pending proposal to notify the Saranda and Sasangdaburu forest areas in West Singhbhum district as a wildlife sanctuary and conservation reserve, respectively.
The state government, in its affidavit, had earlier said it proposed to notify an area of 57,519.41 hectares, as against the original proposal of 31,468.25 hectares, as the wildlife sanctuary.
On September 17, the bench had pulled up the state government for what it described as totally unfair conduct and dilly-dallying tactics in declaring the Saranda forest region a wildlife sanctuary.
It had also asked the chief secretary of Jharkhand, Avinash Kumar, to personally appear before it on October 8 to show cause as to why the state government has not notified the wildlife sanctuary.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
