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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

High Court directs MoEF to notify eco-sensitive zones in Sikkim within 2 months

GANGTOK, 10 Dec: The High Court of Sikkim has directed that the Ministry of Environment and Forests issue a notification demarcating “eco-sensitive zones”, commonly known as buffer zones, within two months in Sikkim. In fact, the Union Ministry has been directed to issue a draft notification on the above mentioned matter within a month from today. This direction was issued in connection with a writ petition challenging the Tashiding hydel project in West Sikkim.
The division bench of the High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice NK Jain and Justice SP Wangdi came close to initiating contempt proceedings against the Ministry as the matter of notifying the eco sensitive zones has been pending for almost a year.
The matter is of significance to Sikkim as the Tashiding hydel project, apparently, and as also opined by the High Court, is presently in violation of Central government and Supreme Court guidelines on the matter and therefore, appears to be an illegal project. There is also the other aspect that the project developers as well as the State government are yet to get clearance from the National Board of Wildlife which is also under the MoEF.
As per the Supreme Court guidelines there can be no construction or undertaking within 10 km radius of any national park; the Tashiding HEP being developed by Shiga Energy has been found to be encroaching within the 10 km radius of the Khangchendzonga National Park and therefore in clear violation of this stipulation. However, given the topography and location of Sikkim and especially the fact that almost 80% of the state is under forest cover and part of one national park or the other, the State government has appealed that it would virtually be impossible to undertake any developmental project if this stipulation [of 10km buffer zone] was to be followed.
In response to this appeal, the MoEF had sought a proposal from the Sikkim government on what it thought would be an acceptable limit for demarcating a buffer zone. This proposal by the state government has already been submitted and the concerned ministry in the centre was to examine this proposal and then issue a relevant notification demarcating a buffer zone for Sikkim considering the local topography. The Union Ministry has issued a similar notification for the state of Goa in consideration of its small size. However, this has not yet come about for Sikkim and the MoEF has been found wanting of paying adequate attention and priority to Sikkim.
The Court also noted that this was an urgent matter and the Ministry should have decided on the matter and issued a notification by now. Central government counsel, Karma Thinlay submitted that the relevant officials in the Ministry were busy with the ongoing Parliament session. Present on behalf of the state respondents was Additional AG, JB Pradhan and for the petitioners, Zangpo Sherpa. The division bench decided to grant one month’s time for the issuance of a draft notification and another month for completion of all procedures and issuance of a final notification on the matter.
In the meanwhile the construction activity appears to be continuing at the project site. The High Court had earlier stated that this [work] would be at the risk of the project developer.

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