Centre recommends final notification of ESZ around Bor Tiger Reserve

The Centre has recommended the final notification of the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of 678 square kilometres (sqkm) around Bor Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Maharashtra’s Wardha district. The decision was made in the 47th meeting of the the ministry’s expert committee on ESZ held on August 17, the minutes of which were published on September 8,

The Union environment ministry has recommended the final notification of the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of 678 square kilometres (sqkm) around Bor Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Maharashtra’s Wardha district. The decision was made in the 47th meeting of the the ministry’s expert committee on ESZ held on August 17, the minutes of which were published on September 8, following the publication of a draft notification by the ministry on February 5 this year.

In 2020, the estimated population of tigers in Bor Tiger Reserve stood at six. Now, with the Centre’s nod, the government of Maharashtra will have to prepare a Zonal Master Plan and Tourism Master Plan within a period of two years from the notification being published in the official gazette, which is expected to happen within the month (Photo for representation)

The final declaration of the ESZ, meant to act as a buffer zone to ease development pressures around the protected area, has been pending for several years. The Maharashtra government had first notified a buffer zone of 678.15 sqkm as a protected area under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 via a notification dated December 4, 2015, for Bor Wildlife Sanctuary, New Bor and Extended New Bor forests which together make up 138 sqkms of tiger habitat.

Now, with the Centre’s nod, the government of Maharashtra will have to prepare a Zonal Master Plan and Tourism Master Plan within a period of two years from the notification being published in the official gazette, which is expected to happen within the month. The environment ministry has also constituted an 11-member ESZ monitoring committee which will regulate non-forestry activities in the ESZ area around Bor, as per the schedule of controlled activities mentioned in the Environment Protection Act.

The minimum width of the finally notified ESZ will be 0.5 km, and 26.5 km at its widest point. The ESZ will straddle forest divisions in Nagpur and Wardha divisions, and will consist of 355 sqkms of protected forest land and 322 sqkms of non-forest area across five villages in Nagpur and two in Wardha.

Initially a wildlife sanctuary, Bor was declared as a tiger reserve in 2014, and is the smallest such protected area in the country with a population of four tigers in 2014. In 2020, the estimated population of tigers in Bor stood at six. In all, BTR has so far recorded 30 species of mammals, 26 species of reptiles and several other amphibian species. It also supports important endangered or vulnerable wildlife including leopards, sloth bears, wild dogs, four horned-antelopes and sambar deer, in addition to about 160 species of resident and migratory waterfowl.

Kishor Rithe, director of the Satpuda Foundation and member of state wildlife board, said, “It usually does not take this long for the Centre to notify an ESZ after the state government, but in the case of Bor, there are actually three different protected areas which have had their own separate issues with notification and resettlement of affected populations. That’s one reason for the lag. Frequent changes in official positions have also slowed down the bureaucratic process.”

Rithe, who has served on state-level committees to delineate critical tiger habitat and buffer area around BTR pursuant to the Tiger Conservation Plan, said Bor is a critical habitat for tigers in eastern Maharashtra, serving as a corridor between larger tiger reserves such as Pench and Tadoba-Andhari.

“As far as the Zonal Master Plan is concerned, the forest department has so far been reluctant to draw up the plans for any protected area in Maharashtra. It involves a lot of coordination between various departments, like irrigation and agriculture departments. It’s been conveyed to us that the task may be outsourced to a third-party agency, but there aren’t any organisations with the requisite expertise. At the moment, there are no such master plans for any protected area in Maharashtra. Worryingly, there are no good examples from anywhere else in the country for the forest department or third-party agency to refer to,” he added.