As SC Pulls Up Expert Panels on Sariska Tiger Reserve Boundaries, What is the Issue About? 

Bengaluru: On August 6, the Supreme Court came down heavily on two expert panels – the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the National Board for Wild Life – for having attempted to redraw the boundaries of Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan in a matter of a few days. 

The top court observed that it had “reposed great faith” in the two expert panels “thinking they are experts” and would deliberate on the issue but instead the panels acted like a “post office”.

Conservationists and citizens have been raising concerns about the standing committee of the National Board for Wild Life approving the Rajasthan government’s proposal to decrease the buffer area of the tiger reserve on June 26. The denotification of the buffer area, they have said, will pave the way for around 50 mines, which used to operate in the vicinity but were shut down by an order by the Supreme Court in 2024, to restart their operations. 

Protests have been mounting against the decision over the past few days. On July 29, International Tiger Day, a group of Mumbaikars came together at the Aarey Forest in Mumbai, Maharashtra, to highlight the issue. On August 4, citizens gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to raise their concerns. 

“Save Sariska”, “Together For Tigers”, “No Mining Sariska”, read some of the banners they held up. 

Via a petition on Jhatkaa.org, 3,645 letters have been sent – as of August 6 – to officials, including the Chief Justice of India, the Union environment minister, Rajasthan chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, the National Tiger Conservation Authority and others. 

Why are conservationists and citizens raising concerns about Sariska and its tigers? And why are there fears of renewal of mining in the reserve? 

The Wire breaks it down for you.

What is happening in Sariska?

Sariska is a tiger reserve in northeastern Rajasthan. It is just a four-hour drive from New Delhi, and is home to stunning dry deciduous forests – and of course, tigers. Other protected species including caracals and striped hyenas also dwell in the reserve.

On June 26, during its 84th meeting, the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL, which reviews and issues permits for development projects in wildlife habitats including protected areas, their eco-sensitive zones and tiger corridors) approved the Rajasthan government’s proposal to increase the Critical Tiger Habitat of the Sariska Tiger Reserve from 881 square kilometres to 924 sq km, and reduce buffer zone area from 245 sq km to 203 sq km. 

All tiger reserves across India are demarcated into two zones, as per the Wild Life Protection Act 1972: an inner core zone or “Critical Tiger Habitat” and a “buffer” or peripheral zone.

Essentially, the core zones or Critical Tiger Habitats are envisaged as “inviolate” areas where no human activity is permitted. Per the Act, these are areas “where it has been established, on the basis of scientific and objective criteria, that such areas are required to be kept as inviolate for the purposes of tiger conservation, without affecting the rights of the Scheduled Tribes or such other forest dwellers, and notified as such by the State Government in consultation with an Expert Committee constituted for the purpose”.

Meanwhile, the Act defines a buffer zone as that consisting of the area peripheral to the Critical Tiger Habitat, “where a lesser degree of habitat protection is required to ensure the integrity of the critical tiger habitat with adequate dispersal for tiger species, and which aim at promoting co-existence between wildlife and human activity with due recognition of the livelihood, developmental, social and cultural rights of the local people, wherein the limits of such areas are determined on the basis of scientific and objective criteria in consultation with the concerned Gram Sabha and an Expert Committee constituted for the purpose”.

With the standing committee of the NBWL’s approval on June 26, Sariska Tiger Reserve’s buffer zone area will decrease by 42 sq km – that’s almost 143 times the area of Nehru Park in New Delhi.

Why does this matter?

There are four main concerns about the decrease in buffer area that conservationists and citizens have highlighted.

First, buffer areas – though they permit human activities to some extent and are not as “inviolate” as core zones – are also crucial habitats for wildlife. This is because while the area sustains wildlife, wild animals also use buffer zones to move in and out of the core zone and into other forest areas and habitats outside the reserve. 

This is extremely important for a species like India’s national animal – tiger – in Sariska, who are known to have a home range of anywhere from 35 sq km (in the case of females) to 95 sq km (males), as per a 2024 study. Tigers are also known to wander far and wide. In 2020, reports had surfaced of a male tiger covering 3,000 km in nine months in Maharashtra.

In this context, the conservation history of Sariska assumes huge significance. In the early 2000s, Sariska lost all the 28 tigers it was home to – to poaching. By 2004, there was not a single tiger left in the tiger reserve. When news of this local extinction emerged and questions arose, the Indian government had to do something drastic. So, it reintroduced tigers from another park into Sariska. 

This was a first in the history of tiger conservation in India. 

The programme has been a runaway success. According to a recent news report, Sariska is now (as of June this year) home to nearly 50 tigers. So, it’s no surprise that meddling with the boundaries of a reserve whose once-extinct tiger population is now making a full-fledged comeback is raising eyebrows. Citizens and conservationists alike have raised questions behind this move.

Second, activists have also been pointing out that the redrawing of the Reserve’s boundaries - which also allegedly involves excluding around 23 sites in existing Critical Tiger Habitat from Alwar district - could pave the way to restart the operations of around 50 marble and dolomite mines, which used to operate before, but were stopped by an order by the Supreme Court in 2024. 

In 2023, the Supreme Court had banned mining activities within a radius of one kilometre from all protected areas; this applies to the Critical Tiger Habitat of Sariska Tiger Reserve too, the Supreme Court had remarked in May 2024, as it passed the order to shut down the mines operating in the area.

“This move to redraw boundaries of Sariska is not acceptable to citizens of Alwar district as it will end up rewarding violators of the law and set a dangerous precedent for similar illegalities to be legitimised in all other protected areas across India. India’s conservation success depends on maintaining ecological integrity while fostering public trust. The process of rationalisation should not be used as a cover for re-starting shut down mines and taking out critical areas of tiger movement from the reserve,” said Sneha Solanki, of the Tiger Trails Trust from Alwar, in a press statement. 

Third, the state and Union governments’ approvals to “rationalise” the borders of the reserve came in a matter of days. The Rajasthan State Wildlife Board approved the proposal on June 23. The National Tiger Conservation Authority approved it on June 25. And the standing committee of NBWL the next day, on June 26. What was the hurry?

Incidentally, the Alwar district – where Sariska Tiger Reserve is located and where its boundaries are being redrawn – is Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav’s constituency. Yadav had won by a whopping margin of 48,282 votes and a vote share of 50% in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

‘Irrational rationalisation’

There is no legal rationale to the “rationalisation” exercise of altering Sariska’s borders, according to environmental lawyer Ritwick Dutta.

In a recent commentary for Frontline, Dutta pointed to a report in March 2024 by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC, which ensures that the Supreme Court’s orders pertaining to a famous case in forest jurisprudence – the 1996 Godavarman case – is implemented properly). The CEC’s report noted that the area of the Sariska wildlife sanctuary was smaller than the Critical Tiger Habitat of the tiger reserve – 492 sq km versus 881.11 sq km, respectively.

However, Dutta argued that there is no rule that core zones and wildlife sanctuaries have to be bigger or smaller than the other. 

So, there was nothing “rational” about this “rationalisation”. Yet, the Rajasthan government has used this argument to rationalise the borders of the tiger reserve, Dutta pointed out.

“If the boundaries of the Sariska Tiger Reserve are redrawn as planned, over 50 mines would be repositioned outside the no-mining zone. It is submitted that if the present legally flawed and environmentally detrimental process of ‘rationalisation’ is permitted, it will open the floodgates for similar exercises to be conducted with respect to other Critical Tiger Habitats, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries. It is submitted that this step is opposed to the principle of Environmental Rule Of Law and is also opposed to the Precautionary Principle,” said Kailash Meena, who leads grassroot struggles in North Rajasthan against illegal mining in the Aravallis,  in a press statement.

He is also one of the petitioners who moved the Supreme Court on August 5 regarding the issue of Sariska’s boundaries. Activists including Meena who filed the petition in the Supreme Court also pointed out that two members of the Rajasthan State Wildlife Board had expressed dissent about the “rationalisation” of the Reserve’s boundaries, specifically denotifying the 23 sites in the Critical Tiger Habitat. However, this was not recorded in the Board’s minutes of the meeting, and nor was this acknowledged by the National Board for Wild Life – which, again, raises concerns about the legality of such a decision.

What is the latest?

Raising all these issues, citizens and environmental organisations moved a petition in the Supreme Court on August 5. The top court heard the matter on August 6 – and came down heavily on both the NTCA and the Standing Committee of the NBWL.

“We reposed such great faith in NTCA and SC-NBWL thinking they are experts as we expected them to do some deliberation on this issue. But they are acting like a post office,” the bench, comprising Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and justices K. Vinod Chandran and N.V. Anjaria said, per a news report by Hindustan Times.

Saying that the panels had made “a mockery of the system” by granting clearances in a matter of 48 hours, the bench sent the proposal back to the two panels for their consideration again.

The redrawing of the Sariska tiger reserve’s boundaries cannot be done in a day, the bench observed, because the issue deals with tigers. It also commented that the decision should have been taken after inviting comments.

“There ought to have been a draft notification, inviting objections and holding deliberations…This is only providing lip service. It amounts to making a mockery of the system,” HT quoted the bench as saying. 

The bench also remarked that it looked like the hasty decisions had been made by the panels to aid the mining lobby. 

“We will set aside everything if we are not satisfied,” HT quoted it as saying. “This gives an impression that the allegation that miners are having a say is proving to be right. It was done to facilitate miners.”

The Supreme Court will now hear the case on August 12.

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