The Gujarat High Court today sought explanation from the Centre and the state government on a plan to set up new tourist zone in the Gir Asiatic lions sanctuary.<\/p>\n
The court took up the issue as a suo motu PIL.<\/p>\n
The division bench comprising justices Akil Kureshi and J B Pardiwala served notices to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and the state government’s forest department in the PIL, which demanded that the area be declared as a ‘critical habitat zone’.<\/p>\n
The court also directed the Gujarat government to file a status report on developmental and construction activities in the Gir Lions sanctuary elaborating whether those activities are permissible under provisions of the law.<\/p>\n
The bench asked details of private properties constructed in the sanctuary and directed the district collector of Gir-Somnath to file a reply.<\/p>\n
The issue surfaced after a ‘whistleblower’ made a detailed application to the Gujarat High Court Chief Justice, last month, stating that the Gujarat government has proposed a new tourist zone in the south-east area of the Gir sanctuary.<\/p>\n
It was contended in the application that the south- east area should be declared as a ‘critical wild-life zone’ instead of proposing a new tourist zone.<\/p>\n
There is already a tourist zone in Gir Asiatic lions sanctuary and due to this encroachment of developmental activities, the ecology of the area has incurred a loss, the application said.<\/p>\n
The Gujarat High Court has taken up the issue as a suo motu PIL and initiated proceedings.<\/p>\n
After issuing notices to all respondents, the court posted the matter for further hearing on October 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Gujarat High Court today sought explanation from the Centre and the state government on a plan to set up new tourist zone in the Gir Asiatic lions sanctuary. The court took up the issue as a suo motu PIL. The division bench comprising justices Akil Kureshi and J B Pardiwala served notices to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20124],"tags":[2487,29854,3584,29856,29853,29855],"class_list":["post-35328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-judiciary-legal-system","tag-justice-j-b-pardiwala","tag-justices-akil-kureshi","tag-moef","tag-suo-motu-pil","tag-tourism-zone-in-gir","tag-union-ministry-of-environment-and-forest"],"yoast_head":"\n