New Delhi: The National Board for Wildlife is now nothing more than a “rubber stamp” and functions as “clearing house” for proposals to divert forest land in Protected Areas – entirely contrary to its mandate, conservationists have decried in a petition submitted to the Delhi high court. The court, on July 8, asked the respondents – three officials under the Union environment ministry – to respond in four weeks.

Mandated to protect India’s wild lands

The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) is a statutory body under the Union environment ministry that has to sign off on permissions for the diversion of forest land in Protected Areas across India. The board was constituted in 2003, under the Wild Life Protection Act (1972).

It is chaired by the Prime Minister and currently has 47 members including members of the Parliament, secretaries of various ministries, conservationists, ecologists and environmentalists, and representatives of non-governmental organizations, among others.

The Standing Committee of the NBWL considers proposals regarding developmental activities in national parks, sanctuaries, tiger reserves, tiger corridors and activities that require environmental clearance inside Eco-Sensitive Zones around national parks and sanctuaries. For instance, the Standing Committee approved the denotification of the Megapode and Galathea Bay Sanctuaries on Great Nicobar Island in its 60th meeting on January 5, 2021.

It was only after this approval came through that the union environment ministry gave the first clearance – Stage 1 or in-principle approval – for the diversion of 130 square kilometres of dense forests on the island for the construction of a Rs 92,000 crore project on the island comprising of an international transshipment container terminal, a greenfield airport, a township, a power plant and tourism facilities.

‘Poor application of mind’

This and several other approvals by the Board over the years show how this institutional framework under the WLP Act “has been an abysmal failure”, said ten conservationists in a writ petition against the conduct of the Board.

The ten petitioners include former member of the National Board for Wildlife Prerna Singh Bindra, former IFS officers Prakriti Srivastava (who retired as a Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in the Kerala cadre) and Uma Shanker Singh (a former PCCF from Uttar Pradesh), former IAS officer M.K. Ranjitsinh (who played a big role in the reintroduction of the cheetah in India) and law and policy researcher Debadityo Sinha.

Also read: The Great Nicobar Project – A Geological Folly and a Strategic Gamble

“It [the Board] has exposed – and continues to expose – vast tracts of invaluable wild natural habitats to encroachments, fragmentation and irreversible decimation,” the petitioners have said.

“Shockingly, over 97% of the proposals for denotification, diversion or reduction of Protected Area land considered by the SC-NBWL between 2014 to 2026 were approved,” the petition noted.

With regard to the approvals for the denotification of the sanctuaries on Great Nicobar Island for instance, the minutes of the meeting in 2021 “reflect very poor application of mind”, the petition argued. It said that the approvals do not consider the ecological significance of the Galathea Bay and Megapode Sanctuaries, both home to Schedule I species such as the giant leatherback turtle and the endemic and critically endangered Nicobar Megapode, a ground-dwelling bird.

Large-scale diversions of protected lands

India’s Protected Areas are therefore being exposed to large scale and illegal diversion, reduction, and denotification by the National Board of Wildlife its Standing Committee, the petitioners have said. “The functioning of the NBWL and the SC-NBWL is in total disregard of their constitutional and statutory duties and in violation of the very intent and purpose for which they were statutorily created,” their petition, accessed by The Wire, reads.

The petition also pointed out other concerns. As per law, the NBWL is mandated to meet once a year. “However, the NBWL rarely meets. It met after a gap of 13 years in 2025,” the petition said.

The SC-NBWL has been “recklessly permitting proposals for diversion of Protected Areas”, and the activities that the Committee is permitting in PAs “do not in any way serve the stated statutory goals of conservation and better management of wildlife and its habitat”, the petition read.

“The SC-NBWL has mechanically approved hundreds of proposals with almost no scrutiny or application of mind, based on scant ecological and scientific evidence, limited expert assessment of the impacts and no transparency. A perusal of the agenda for the meetings of the SC-NBWL and the minutes of these meetings show that often the Committee considers over 100 proposals in a one-day meeting. Given the limited time the SC-NBWL spends on each proposal, it has become a ‘clearing house’, and its recommendations are nothing short of ‘rubber stamping’,” the petition said.

In just four meetings, the Standing Committee has recommended the diversion of 5,824 hectares of Protected Areas and Eco-sensitive zones, the petition read. Many of these denotifications also go against various orders by the Supreme Court, it said.

No expertise

The Committee consists mostly of government officials, who have “little relevant and independent expertise”, the petition said. There are also no set rules of procedure guiding the functioning of the Committee; a perusal of the minutes of the meetings from 2014 reveal that dissent within the Committee, if any, is not recorded, per the Petition.

“There is no voting on matters, and often the chairperson makes unilateral decisions, thus rendering the expertise and diversity of views within the committee – and outside it – redundant,” it added.

For these reasons, the petition has called for “urgent directions” from the Delhi High Court for the effective protection of the Protected Areas under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.

The court has given the three respondents attached to the case - the secretary of the union environment ministry, the member secretary of the NBWL and the Additional Director General of Forests (Wildlife) - four weeks to respond. The case will be heard on September 18.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.