BHAVNAGAR: Gujarat government's utter disregard towards preserving its wildlife couldn't be more telling. National parks, which have the highest protection cover for its flagship species, have the least eco-sensitive zone in Gujarat.This is revealed if one carefully analysis the ESZs around sanctuaries and national parks in the state. In fact, the four national parks in the state have even lesser protection cover of ESZs than than the sanctuaries.The four national parks include Gir National Park, Velavadar Blackbuck National Park , Marine National Park and Vansda National Park . Out of the four, three are in Saurashtra.The final notification for Marine National Park has already been approved and the government's move to shrink ESZ cover for Gir and Velavadar will prove dangerous. Any unwarranted, unauthorised and unregulated activities around these national parks would cause an irreparable loss of our precious natural heritage," said a senior forest department officer. Biren Padhya , a wildlife activist, said, "The government's attempt to reduce ESZs drastically even around the national parks is beyond common sense and devoid of scientific approach. It's a tragedy that the government is purely acting for electoral gains, leaving our wildlife and forest in danger."Padhya's RTI plea revealed that government has reduced ESZ cover around Blackbuck National Park from its original 727.68 sq km to just 37.24 sq km (maximum 1 km) in the revised proposal.In fact, some wild life sancturies have a bigger ESZ around the. For example, Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Narmada district has an ESZ of nearly 7 km while Rampara sanctuary near Rajkot as 4.5 km ESZ.The National Wildlife Action Plan 2002-16 indicates that the 'areas outside Protected Areas network are often vital ecological corridor links and must be protected to prevent isolation of fragments of biodiversity which will not survive in the long run'. Land and water use policies will need to accept the imperative of strictly protecting ecologically fragile habitats and regulating use elsewhere. The action plan also indicates all identified areas around protected areas and wildlife corridors should be declared as ecologically fragile under Environment (Protection) Act 1986.

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