SC bans mining within 1-km radius of national parks, wildlife sanctuaries

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that mining within the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries shall not be permitted.

Besides this, the top court also directed that each protected forest, that is a national park or wildlife sanctuary, must have an eco-sensitive zone of a minimum of one kilometre measured from the demarcated boundary of such protected forest in which the activities proscribed and prescribed in the Guidelines of February 9, 2011, shall be strictly adhered to. For the Jamua Ramgarh wildlife sanctuary, it shall be 500 metres so far as subsisting activities are concerned, the Court said.

These directions were passed by a Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, BR Gavai and Aniruddha Bose.