Government of Madhya Pradesh identified and declared 17 Eco-Sensitive Zones in the State

The Government of Madhya Pradesh in the first week of January 2013 declared that it has identified 17 eco-sensitive zones across the wildlife sanctuaries and parks of the state. It also cleared that illegal mining and commercial activities around these eco-sensitive zones would be prohibited.

The move of identifying the eco-sensitive zones across the state came up in response to the last-chance offered to the State Government by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for identification of such zones and provide a site specific proposal before 15 February 2013. The notice was issued to the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on 11 December 2012, which directed the state government to submit the proposal within the stipulated timeframe. If there would have been any delay in identification and declaration of these Zones, then the Ministry would have declared an area of 10 kilometers as eco-sensitive zones of the National Parks and Sanctuaries and this declaration would have barred the commercial and associated activities which had an impact on the environment. All these things would have happened following the norms of the ministry.

Madhya Pradesh at present has twenty-five wildlife Sanctuaries and eight National Parks. The state Forest Department identified and approved the eco-sensitive zones across Pench National Park, Kanha National Park, Panna National Park and Kuno Palpur sanctuary, Bandhavgarh National Park and others.