Eco-Sensitive Zones are meant to act as shock absorbers for Protected Areas, yet unregulated tourism threatens them. Examine, with reference to recent judicial directions.

Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) are notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. They are meant to be a "shock absorber" and a transition zone around Protected Areas (PAs). Their rules are regulatory, not prohibitive [1]. Weak enforcement has allowed resorts and homestays to come up in these zones, which turns that buffering role upside down.

ESZs as shock absorbers

• Wildlife spill-over: buffer areas hold sub-adult and transient tigers and absorb poaching pressure on the core [3].
• Graded protection: activities are allowed, regulated or prohibited under the MoEFCC guidelines of 9 February 2011 [1].

How unregulated tourism threatens them

• Illegal construction after notification: Karnataka's State Board for Wildlife has ordered action against resorts and homestays built in the ESZs and buffers of tiger reserves after notification [5].
• Delayed notification: the CAG found that Rajasthan sent incomplete ESZ proposals, which delayed notification. Hotels and resorts multiplied around Sariska without National Board for Wildlife approval [4].
• Missing management tools: Zonal and Tourism Master Plans are often not prepared. Without them, a genuine eco-homestay cannot be told apart from a disguised resort.
• Ecological costs: habitat is broken up, corridors are blocked and human–wildlife conflict rises.

Recent judicial directions

• 3 June 2022: the Supreme Court barred any new permanent structure within an ESZ [1].
• 26 April 2023: the Court eased this bar, allowing activities subject to strict adherence to the 2011 guidelines [1].
• 17 November 2025 (T.N. Godavarman case): the Court directed that ESZs be notified for all tiger reserves. Tiger safaris are allowed only on non-forest or degraded land in buffers, and never in core areas or corridors [2].
• Limits: the courts can set rules but cannot enforce them on the ground. The bar moved between 2022 and 2023, which gives offenders room to litigate.

Way forward

• Prepare Zonal and Tourism Master Plans and set up working Monitoring Committees for every ESZ.
• Publish a time-bound inventory of buildings and act on corridors first.
• Move genuine community homestays to non-forest buffer land.

Judicial directions have made the ESZ standard much clearer, but how well it works depends on State-level planning and enforcement. Regulated, community-centred ecotourism can protect both livelihoods and wildlife, in line with Article 48A, Article 51A(g) and SDG 15.