File picture of two tigers at the Nandankanan Zoological Park

Cuttack, May 18: Orissa High Court today reserved judgment on the PIL for a green belt around the Nandankanan Zoological Park to save its ecology from rapid urbanisation.

The division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra reserved judgment after closing hearing on the PIL which had been pending before the court for nearly nine years. The bench took note of an affidavit filed by Sudarsan Panda, director of the Nandankanan Zoological Park.

The affidavit said: “At present, there is no proposal from the Nandankanan Zoological Park to acquire land within 1km radius of the park for declaration of that area as a green belt.”

“But for maintaining ecological integrity of the sanctuary and also for safety of the animals, it is essential that the present land use pattern of the land situated within 1km radius around the park will remain unchanged,” said Panda.

One Zakir Khan (36) of Bhubaneswar had filed the PIL. Acting on it, on May 16, 2002, the high court issued an interim order clamping a ban on any type of construction around the park and ordered not to convert the land status within 1km radius. Even all types of reclamation in the area were banned.

Nearly six years later, Khan had followed up with a petition again when unauthorised construction in the area allegedly continued unabated.

Taking note of it, the high court, in April 2008, appointed advocate Gautam Mishra as one-man commission to make a detailed inquiry and submit a report.

Subsequently, the commission had submitted a report confirming violation of the ban order citing lodged complaints related to it by the Nandankanan Zoological Park authorities at the Barang police station and photograph evidence on land reclamation work undergoing in the prohibited zone. The report stated that more than 30 FIRs had been lodged and contractors were undertaking land reclamation work on the basis of lease granted by the local tehsildar.

The division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopal Gowda and Justice Indrajit Mohanty took note of the report on August 5, 2010, and sought to know whether the Orissa government was ready to acquire the land within 1km radius of Nandankanan for creation of a green belt.

By then, the government was also expected to make clear whether it had prepared any plan for protection of the Nandankanan wetlands and creation of a bird sanctuary. Panda filed the affidavit in response to it on November 2, 2010, only to be taken note of when the case came up for hearing today.

“Our basic contention has been that the ecology in and around the National Zoological Park, especially the Kanjia lake and other wetlands, is under threat due to conversion of farmlands and construction activities,” petitioner counsel Siba Narayan Panda told The Telegraph today.

The park, within its perimeter, covers 362 hectares of undulating forested areas and natural wetlands. The Kanjia lake, designated as a wetland of national importance, attracts a wide variety of domestic and migrant birds.

The wetlands are spread over 105 hectares, out of which, the water-spread area of main lake is 75 hectares where as about 30 hectares are small satellite wetland. It plays a role by way of meeting the fresh water needs of the zoo and the botanical garden.