Panaji | March 19, 2015: While the central government recently notified a uniform buffer zone of 1km for Goa's five wildlife sanctuaries and 100m for the Dr Salim Ali bird sanctuary at Chorao, it has recommended phasing out of existing mines in buffer zones of only Netravali and Molem wildlife sanctuaries.
The phasing out will further be within 10 years, subject to acceptance by the Supreme Court and on condition that the state government will direct parties to strictly carry out a proper and rigorous mine closure plan for rehabilitation and ecological restoration of the mined out, as per Indian Bureau of Mines norms.
Goa has 17 mining leases within the 1km buffer zones of wildlife sanctuaries and a draft notification published in March 2014 had prohibited commercial mining, besides several other activities, in eco-sensitive zones of all protected areas.
As per this notification Netravali's protected area had five villages, Nundem, Dongar, Villien, Bhati, Kumbari, situated outside its boundary but completely within the buffer zone, while 13 villages were partially within the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ). But as per the notification issued recently, a total of 16 villages are shown as being located partially within ESZ, excluding Nundem from the list.
Mhadei with an area of 208.48 sq km has 35 villages outside the protected area but partially within the buffer zone. But Rivem and Hivrem-Khurd appear to have been excluded.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)