Summary:
Activists, NGOs and forest officials say that the 2018 draft notification is impractical and defeats the very purpose of having an ESZ around the Park. Significantly, in the 2018 draft notification, some key parcels of land, which are part of an elephant corridor connecting Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka to the South and North Cauvery Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu, have been shockingly left out. The 2018 draft notification, with 168.84 sqkm ESZ area, and 400 metres to 1km, goes against the fundamental principle and objective of constituting an ESZ around protected areas in the country. I will pursue this issue with the CM and the Centre, against the state’s proposal to reduce the ESZ area as this will allow more commercial development around the ESZ area. It cuts many villages and survey numbers into two bits and fails to provide any protection to the National Park..