Shrinking ESZ will adversely affect lion's conservation

RAJKOT: The government’s move to shrink the eco-sensitive zone around the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary poses existential threat to its compact eco-system.
“On one side, maldharis living inside the sanctuary are yet to be relocated outside the protected area and those who were relocated returned back in last decade. Now, the sanctuary faces immense pressure due to human habitats in form of nesh (traditional homes of maldharis) and settlement villages located inside amid rising lion population,” said a senior IFS officer.
Experts said that human habitats, whether settlement villages or nesh inside the sanctuary, are not good for conservation of lions in the long term. Moreover, Gir Sanctuary is already fragmented with so many roads passing through it and vehicular traffic also increasing on these ‘right of ways’. At a time when lions are moving out of the sanctuary, the ESZ cover will play a major role around Gir where certain hazardous activity in its vicinity can be regulated and controlled, officials said.
“Years of wildlife and forest conservation experiences around the world substantiate the fact that landscape outside the protected areas has to be managed in eco-friendly manner to achieve long-term conservation goals,” added an official.
The purpose of declaring ESZ around sanctuaries and national parks is to create some kind of ‘shock absorber’ for the protected areas. They would act as transition zone from areas of high protection to areas involving lesser protection.