Administrator
13 November 2025
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Jharkhand government to notify 126 compartments in the Saranda forest area as a wildlife sanctuary within three months, and prohibited any mining activity within a one-km radius of its boundary.
Observing that the state government cannot run away from its duty to declare the extent of 31,468.25 hectares as Saranda Wildlife Sanctuary, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran, however, excluded six compartments designated for mining.
“We direct that the state government shall notify the area comprising of 126 compartments as notified in 1968 notification, excluding six compartments i.e., compartment numbers KP-2, KP-10, KP-11, KP-12, KP-13 and KP-14, as a wildlife sanctuary within a period of three months from the date of this judgment," the bench said.-
The court said it has been its consistent view that "mining activities within one km of the protected area will be hazardous to the wildlife. Though in the case of Goa Foundation, the said directions were issued with respect to the State of Goa, we find that such directions need to be issued on a pan-India basis".
"We direct that mining within national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and within an area of one km from boundary of such national park or wildlife sanctuary shall not be permissible," the bench said.
In this matter, the Jharkhand government had initially sought to exclude 57,519.41 hectares of forest land, saying that it was inhabited for centuries by the Ho, Munda, Uraon and allied Adivasi communities.
The state government had argued that the move would help safeguard their forest rights and protect schools and educational institutions already existing within that region.
However, in an affidavit before the apex court, the state government submitted that an area of 57,519.41 hectares was erroneously arrived at and the area of 31,468.25 hectares will be notified as a wildlife sanctuary.
