Supreme Court Orders Jharkhand to Designate Saranda Forest as Wildlife Sanctuary Within 3 Months, Bans Mining Activities

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a directive to the Jharkhand government to designate 126 compartments in the Saranda forest region as a wildlife sanctuary within three months and prohibited any mining activities within one kilometer of its boundary.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran, emphasized that the state government cannot evade its responsibility to declare the 31,468.25 hectares as Saranda Wildlife Sanctuary. However, they excluded six compartments (KP-2, KP-10, KP-11, KP-12, KP-13, and KP-14) designated for mining operations.

The court stated, "We direct that the state government shall notify the area comprising of 126 compartments as notified in 1968 notification, excluding six compartments, as a wildlife sanctuary within a period of three months from the date of this judgment."

These compartments are administrative divisions used for sanctuary management purposes.

The Supreme Court reiterated its consistent position that mining activities within one kilometer of protected areas pose hazards to wildlife. Although this directive was initially issued for Goa in a previous case, the court determined that such protections should apply nationwide.

"We direct that mining within national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and within an area of one km from boundary of such national park or wildlife sanctuary shall not be permissible," declared the bench.

Initially, the Jharkhand government had sought to exclude 57,519.41 hectares of forest land, claiming these areas had been inhabited for centuries by Ho, Munda, Uraon, and allied Adivasi communities.

The state government argued this exclusion would protect their forest rights and preserve schools and educational institutions existing in the region.

However, in a subsequent affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the state government acknowledged that the 57,519.41 hectare figure was erroneously calculated, and confirmed that 31,468.25 hectares would be designated as a wildlife sanctuary.

The court rejected the state's submissions, noting that Section 24(2)(c) of the Wildlife Protection Act and Section 3 read with Section 4(1) of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 adequately protect tribal rights even after sanctuary designation.

"The bogey that on declaration of wildlife sanctuary, the habitations and rights of the tribals and traditional forest dwellers will be lost and vital public infrastructures like educational institutions, roads, etc., will have to be demolished is only a figment of imagination of the State," the bench observed.

The court criticized the state government's approach, stating, "Rather than taking such a stand before this court, we are of the considered view that the State should have educated the tribals/forest dwellers residing in the said areas about the rights available to them under the FRA as well as the WPA."

The Supreme Court directed the Jharkhand government to widely publicize that this judgment would not adversely affect individual or community rights of tribals and forest dwellers in the designated area.

"The State shall also give wide publicity to the fact that in view of the provision of Section 3 read with sub-Section (1) of Section 4 of the FRA all the rights of the tribals and the forest dwellers both individually as well as of community shall stand protected," the court ordered.

Earlier, the bench had instructed the Jharkhand government to decide on declaring the ecologically significant Saranda region as a reserve forest.

The case concerned a long-pending proposal to designate the Saranda and Sasangdaburu forest areas in West Singhbhum district as a wildlife sanctuary and conservation reserve, respectively.

The state government had previously indicated in an affidavit that it proposed to notify 57,519.41 hectares, rather than the original proposal of 31,468.25 hectares, as the wildlife sanctuary.

On September 17, the bench had reprimanded the state government for what it described as "totally unfair conduct" and "dilly-dallying tactics" in declaring the Saranda forest region a wildlife sanctuary.

The court had also summoned Jharkhand Chief Secretary Avinash Kumar to personally appear on October 8 to explain why the state government had not yet notified the wildlife sanctuary.