The Supreme Court on November 13 directed the Government of Jharkhand to notify 31,468.25 hectares of the Saranda Game Sanctuary as Saranda Wildlife Sanctuary. It emphasised on the necessity to strike a balance between environmental protection and the need for development while doing so.
The declaration has to come within 90 days, the apex court said about the area that is the site of one of the most pristine Sal forests in the world, home to 23 mammal species including the Asiatic Elephant, Four-horned Antelope, and Sloth Bear, mouse deer and 138 bird species.
The court also observed that the 70 per cent intact forest has been inhabited for centuries by the Ho, Munda, Oraon and allied Adivasi communities whose subsistence and cultural traditions are intrinsically tied to forest produce and are under threat due to habitat degradation and fragmentation.
Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran observed that that on various occasions, i.e., on February 20, April 16 and April 29 this year, a clear indication was given to the court that the state had proposed to notify an area of 57,519.41 hectares as wildlife sanctuary and conservation reserve. But now, the state had turned around on its stand as it had appointed a panel for the same purpose vide order dated May 13, 2025.
The bench said, “We were not unjustified in gathering an impression that the state was taking the court for a ride.”
In its direction, the court told the state government to abide by the original notification issued by the erstwhile unified State of Bihar in 1968, which notified 31,468.25 hectares (approximately 314 sq. km.) of the Saranda forest area as the 'Saranda Game Sanctuary'.
Underscoring that the pristine environment and the rights of the forest dwellers should be protected, it directed that: “Mining within the National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary and within an area of one kilometre from the boundary of such National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary shall not be permissible.”
The court said neither the individual rights nor the community rights of the tribals and the forest dwellers in the said area should be adversely affected.
Shibani Ghosh, Advocate-on-Record, Supreme Court, who represented the applicant Daya Shankar Srivastava, said the apex court directing the state government to declare a wildlife sanctuary within a specific timeframe is a landmark in itself.
"This is probably unprecedented. The declaration will ensure a much higher level of habitat and wildlife protection in the Saranda forest under the Wildlife (Protection) Act,” she said.
Speaking to Down To Earth, E A S Sarma, former tribal commissioner, said, “The Saranda Forest falls within the area notified under the 5th Schedule to the Constitution and the PESA Act is applicable there. PESA empowers the local Adivasi Gram Sabhas to decide on any matter that concerns the rights of tribals. It is significant that the court has specifically mentioned the need to protect the rights of tribals, especially their individual rights to cultivate in forest lands and community rights to forest resources they have been enjoying for generations.”
R K Singh, a distinguished wildlife scientist, had moved the National Green Tribunal in 2020 raising concerns that the Government of Jharkhand and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change had failed to declare an Eco-Sensitive Zone.
“The apex court has pulled up the state government for failing to comply with what it had promised. The traditional forest dwellers are not a threat to the forest, but the population arriving around 2005 - before and after the Forest Rights Act was implemented - has contributed to the forest’s deterioration through encroachments,” he said.
Singh said the judgment has come at a crucial time when the boundaries of the forest have been proposed to be reduced to 24,941.64 hectares.