Centre asks Odisha to rework eco-sensitive zone plan for Satkosia Tiger Reserve

BHUBANESWAR: The Centre has asked the state government to rework its proposed eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) for Satkosia Tiger Reserve after the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) flagged several shortcomings.It, however, said that the draft ESZ of Satkosia doesn’t cover the entire buffer zone. The NTCA noted that the northern part of the buffer has been excluded from the ESZ, which is a deviation from the guidelines. A similar gap is also found in the western and eastern parts of the reserve. The entire buffer should ideally be part of the ESZ

Both the agencies have pointed out that the ESZ boundary does not fully align with norms and lacks conservation planning for the key Similipal-Satkosia corridor.The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has asked the wildlife wing of the state Forest department to resubmit the ESZ proposal after going through the comments of the NTCA and WII at the earliest, to facilitate timely publication of the draft notification.

The NTCA in its memorandum, accessed by TNIE, has stated that the proposed ESZ boundary of Satkosia does not fully align with its advisories, particularly with respect to full inclusion of buffer areas. The apex tiger conservation body has underlined that the entire buffer zone of a tiger reserve should be included in the ESZ and a radial cushion The NTCA in its memorandum, accessed by TNIE, has stated that the proposed ESZ boundary of Satkosia does not fully align with its advisories, particularly with respect to full inclusion of buffer areas. The apex tiger conservation body has underlined that the entire buffer zone of a tiger reserve should be included in the ESZ and a radial cushion of minimum 1 km be kept from the boundary of the core/critical tiger habitat wherever buffer is disjunct or absent.