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Bengaluru: The public hearing for the ‘rationalising’ of the boundaries of Rajasthan’s Sariska Tiger Reserve, conducted at the district collectorate at Alwar on Wednesday (March 18), witnessed a heated debate as authorities refused to respond to queries about whether redrawing the boundaries of the reserve will reopen old mines in the area. Several members of the public including Rajasthan’s Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Tika Ram Jully and environmental groups raised objections during the hearing.

In June last year, across a span of just a few days, the Rajasthan State Wildlife Board, the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the National Board for Wildlife had approved the Rajasthan government’s proposal to increase the Critical Tiger Habitat (CTH) of the Sariska Tiger Reserve from 881 square kilometres to 924 sq km.

However, environmentalists and lawyers had pointed out that this increase in CTH area is misleading because part of the existing CTH, which is in the southern part of the Tiger Reserve, will be denotified altogether and the new, larger CTH will now be notified in the northern part of the reserve.

Villages that are part of the existing CTH will no longer come under the purview of certain laws, and at least 50 old mines in this area could be reopened for operations, activists had alleged. The Supreme Court had also rapped the NTCA ANS and NBWL and mandated that a public hearing be conducted before taking the decision to redraw the boundaries of the Tiger Reserve.

Several members of the public raised objections about the redrawing of the boundaries of Sariska Tiger Reserve at the public hearing conducted by the state government on March 18.

Rajasthan’s LoP, Jully, who was present at the public hearing asked authorities for the number of mines that would be able to reopen if the redrawing of boundaries occurred. His question was met with silence from authorities, and a statement that objections would be noted and sent to the government.

In a video of the public hearing accessed by The Wire, a government official can be heard saying that estimating the number of mines (that will be reopened if the boundaries are redrawn) comes under the jurisdiction of the........

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