Seven years after the draft notification for an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) around Odisha’s Similipal tiger reserve was issued, the final notification remains pending, with the Centre blaming the state government for the delay.
However, the proposal has remained pending amid revisions, consultations and requests for additional information. The affidavit, dated October 5 and submitted before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said without complete information, the process to notify the ESZ could not be dispensed with or bypassed. The draft notification to declare an ESZ around the Similipal Tiger Reserve and the Hadgarh Wildlife Sanctuary was issued on January 29, 2019. On January 4, 2024, the ministry sought three sets of information from the state: the ESZ proposal in Microsoft Word format; the minimum and maximum extent of the proposed ESZ in all directions, with justification for proposing a zero extent; and the latest gazette notifications for the protected area and tiger reserve. The ministry said the information had not been furnished and that it subsequently wrote to the state on July 17, 2025, seeking the pending details again. A reminder followed on February 13, 2026, and another on September 18, it said. The ministry said it then received an updated proposal from Odisha on October 5, 2023, after NTCA’s concurrence, for re-publication of the draft notification. The Environment Ministry’s own assessment, published in July this year through a report, had said that, out of the country’s 58 tiger reserves, only half or 29, had so far notified ESZ, with the remaining 29 still in different phases of the final ESZ notification.
The Union environment ministry, in an affidavit, has said this is due to the state repeatedly failing to provide the information required to take the process forward and has issued at least three reminders since July last year to the state to share it.
