It was on May 15 that the Supreme Court ruled that mining within one kilometer of the boundaries of critical tiger reserves is a violation of its April last year directive.
The apex court had in its judgement dated April 26, 2023 said that mining activities falling within one kilometer of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries would not be allowed to take place.
An application was before a Bench led by Justice B. R. Gavai seeking to stop all mining operations being conducted in Rajasthan which reportedly contravened the April 26 verdict.
The Bench also comprising Justices S. V. N. Bhatti and Sandeep Mehta observed in this case the Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary constituted a critical tiger habitat-buffer zone.
“In our judgement dated April 26, 2023, we had prohibited mining activities within a radius of one kilometre from all protected areas. Be it noted that protected areas refer to not only national parks and wildlife sanctuaries but also to critical tiger habitats which are none other than tiger reserves,” added the Bench.
It further stated: “In that view of the matter, we find that continuation of any mining activities within a radius of one kilometre from the boundaries of the critical tiger reserves would be in contempt of our order dated April 26, 2023.”
Hence there is no need for making any specific direction to State Government regarding stopping mining operation in Rajasthan upto an area as large as one Kilometer encompassing this Tiger Reserve where even applicants have mentioned at bars about continuance of such activities inside this Sariska Tiger Reserve at distances closer than one kilometer from its borders.” It directed compliance by July end.
Accordingly, it found nothing significant to rule out giving directions against allowing mining around this restricted area up to distance less than one km away from it as per scope given by these observations made above while fixing reporting compliance date with respect to these pleas.
