ORDER

The petitioner. Tarun Bharat Sangh, Alwar, stated to be a Social Action Group concerned with and working for the protection of Environment and preservation of Wild Life, has brought this public interest action for the enforcement of certain statutory notifications promulgated under the Wild Life, Environmental Protection and Forest Conservation Laws in areas declared as a Reserved Forest in Alwar District of the State of Rajasthan. Issue rule nisi.

2. The area, now popularly known as the "Sariska Tiger Park" was, it would appear, an exclusive hunting forest of the Rulers of the Quondam, Alwar State. The area has since been declared as a Game Reserve under the Rajasthan Wild Animals & Birds Protection Act, 1951. The area is also notified pursuant to the Notification dated 1-1-1975, under Sections 29 and 30 of the Rajasthan Forest Act, 1953, as a Reserved Forest. The area is again declared as a sanctuary under Section 35 of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972. The direct effect of these, it is averred, is to impose restrictions on the carrying on of any activity in the protected area which would impair Environment and Wild Life. It is averred that the express and avowed intendment and effect of the notification of the area as a reserved forest is that- no mining activity shall be permitted in the protected area. It is, accordingly, further contended that any mining activity in the area would also be inconsistent with and impermissible under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and that even under the relevant mining laws any grant of mining privileges in the area would be bad.

3. The petitioners allege that despite these notifications and the clear mandate against carrying on of mining operations in this Protected Area both units core and buffer zones, Government of Rajasthan has, illegally and arbitrarily, issued about 400 mining privileges to various persons enabling them to carry on mining operations of lime and dolomite stones inside the protected area and that consequently deep-cast mines are operated to extract Marble by blasting, drilling, chiselling etc. which in the very process of their execution and the deep scars on the landscape they leave behind tend to degrade and diminish the ecology of the area, besides constituting a threat to the habitat of Wild Life. The petitioners rely upon the reports of environmental researchers of the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi in this behalf. Petitioners, accordingly, seek an interlocutory interdiction of the mining operations in the protected area during the pendency of this writ petition.

4. The State of Rajasthan in its counter feebly endeavoured to suggest that the grant of the mining privileges might possibly be the result of some confusion as to the exact boundaries of the "reserved-forest" and the "National-Park" and the exact location of the areas of the mining operations. But the State ultimately seems to acknowledge that the mining areas are within the protected area and that appropriate action to enforce the statutory notifications is necessary. This is what the State Government, inter alia, says:

"It is respectfully submitted that irrespective of the facts that the areas under notifications have been declared as sanctuary, national Park, Tiger Project Sariska and the reserved and Protected forest, mining leases were granted more particularly in the villages namely Kalwar, Mallana, Tilwar, Tilwari, Palpur, Baldeo Garh, Jaisinghpura, Bairley which fall in the protected forest blocks called Kalwar, Gordhanpura (covering Mallana, Jaisingpura Bairley) Berwa Doongri, Baldeo Garh, Tilwari, Tilwar-D, (covering Palpur Tilwar.)"

"...... However it has now come to the knowledge of the answering respondents that these areas fall within the protected zone. Proper action is being taken to strictly comply with the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act and other relevant rules and regulations.

The respondents are extremely keen to protect the entire protected for