The Bombay High Court today directed the Union as well as the State government to take necessary steps and declare the Sawantwadi corridor as an ecologically sensitive area by December this year.
The direction was passed by a division bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M S Sonak, while hearing a public interest litigation filed by a city-based NGO, Awaaz Foundation, seeking declaration of the Sawantwadi-Doddamarg wildlife corridor in Sindhudurg district as an ecologically sensitive area.
The NGO has raised apprehensions of rapid degradation of significant bio-diversity reserves within the corridor.
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The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest had appointed an expert panel headed by Dr Madhav Gadgil to conduct an inquiry and submit a report.
The committee submitted its report along with its recommendations, but the Centre had, on several occasions sought time to take a decision on implementation of the report.
"Despite several extensions given the union government has not taken a decision yet. We direct the secretary of the union ministry of environment and forest to hold a meeting with the state ministry of environment and forest officials by November 1 and discuss the legalities to complete the process to declare Sawantwadi corridor as ecologically sensitive," the court said.
It directed the state government to complete the procedure and send a proposal to the union government by November 30, after which the Centre shall initiate all necessary steps to declare the corridor as ecologically sensitive by December 31.
The state government had earlier informed the court that it was not issuing new mining leases in the ecologically sensitive area.
The corridor has 303 species of plants, shrubs and trees, several with crucial medicinal values, 18 species of wildlife, including Bengal tiger, leopards, black bear and wild buffaloes, and 13 species of birds.
Besides, the 35-square kilometre stretch facilitates the movement of wild animals such as Asiatic elephants, extremely endangered tiger between Koyna and Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuaries and Chandoli National Park.
