As notified vide Ministry’s Office Memorandum dated 17.05.2022, projects/activities in notified Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) around the Protected Areas shall be regulated and governed by the concerned ESZ notification.  Such regulated activities, if covered under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006 as amended, shall require prior environmental clearance as per the provisions of the said notification whereas, if the ESZ is not notified or is in draft stage, prior environmental clearance shall be required for projects/activities located within the default ESZ, i.e., zone within 10 km of the boundaries of the protected areas including National Parks and Sanctuaries. Such projects shall require consideration by the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL)/Standing Committee for National Board of Wildlife (SCNBWL).  Accordingly, proposals are granted environmental clearance after due approval by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), constituted by the Ministry for the purpose. 

As per information available with the Ministry, during last five years, total of 53 proposals were received, of which 40 proposals were granted Environmental Clearance (EC) by the Ministry in the default Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) as per the provisions of the EIA Notification, 2006, as amended. The number of proposals that were granted EC each year for the last five years are as under:

Year	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022	2022-2023
No. of proposals received	04	09	13	18	09
No. of proposals granted EC	01	08	13	09	09

 

 (c) During last five years, total following 669 proposals were recommended by the SCNBWL. The number of proposals that were recommended each year for the last five years are as under:

 

Year	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022	2022-2023
No. of proposals recommended by Standing Committee of NBWL	153	71	85	149	211

 

     This information was given by Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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 MJPS/NSK

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