Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) are areas notified under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, around Protected Areas to act as transition zones between high-protection forests and human-use lands. The Supreme Court in 2022 mandated a minimum one-kilometre ESZ around every Protected Area. Western Ghats ESZ, recommended by the Kasturirangan Committee across six states, remains contentious — Kerala, Goa, and Karnataka oppose strict boundaries, citing impacts on farmers and settlements in over 56,000 sq km of ecologically sensitive land.

Eco-Sensitive Zones are regulatory buffers declared under Section 3(2)(v) of the Environment Protection Act, 1986. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is the nodal authority for notifying ESZs. Their purpose is to create a graduated land-use transition — preventing abrupt shift from strict wildlife habitat to unrestricted development.

The Western Ghats ESZ story has two key layers examiners test:

1. KASTURIRANGAN COMMITTEE (2013): Recommended ~60,000 sq km of the Western Ghats be declared Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), covering parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. This replaced the earlier Gadgil Committee (2011) recommendation of ~64% of Western Ghats as ESA — which states rejected as too restrictive.

2. SUPREME COURT ORDER (2022): The court directed that every National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary must have a minimum 1-km ESZ. This created immediate conflict in densely populated states where villages exist within this radius.

Within ESZs, activities are classified as: Prohibited (mining, quarrying, large hydroelectric projects), Regulated (felling trees, establishment of hotels), and Permitted (ongoing agricultural practices, rainwater harvesting). The distinction between 'prohibited', 'regulated', and 'permitted' categories is a classic UPSC MCQ angle.

For NABARD, the livelihood dimension matters — ESZs affect farmers through restrictions on land conversion, logging, and infrastructure, directly impacting rural credit needs and agricultural expansion in forest-fringe communities.