The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has advised approving the rationalisation of boundaries for Sariska Tiger Reserve, including its sanctuary and designated Critical Tiger Habitat (CTH), in Rajasthan. This recommendation comes despite concerns from environmentalists, who argue that such a move could open the door to legalising mining activities previously stopped by the Supreme Court.
In an interim report submitted as part of a suo motu case addressing multiple issues related to Sariska, the CEC noted: “The CEC recommends that this Hon’ble Court may kindly approve the rationalised CTH, as approved by the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (SCNBWL).”
Regarding the boundaries of the Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary, the CEC has recommended allowing the Rajasthan government to proceed with changes to the reserve forest area, covering 924 sq km.
The southern region of the reserve, particularly the Tehla range, holds significant marble and dolomite deposits. Conservationists fear that redrawing the boundaries could facilitate renewed extraction in these mineral-rich zones, further threatening the fragile ecosystem and undermining decades of conservation efforts.
Unfortunately, despite having legal safeguards in place, Sariska Tiger Reserve has a history of being threatened by mining activities, both legal and illegal, which has impacted its tiger population and overall ecosystem. Mining has caused habitat destruction, water depletion, and increased human interference, disrupting wildlife and potentially leading to renewed poaching and human-wildlife conflict.
Conservationists worry this change in Sariska could weaken protections for core forest areas. For a reserve that has already come back from the brink once, the decision raises questions about whether history might repeat itself. When the proposal to redraw the reserve’s boundary had been announced earlier, it sparked concern over habitat loss and the likely expansion of mining. If approved, activists said, over 50 mines would fall outside the no-mining zone, including those in villages like Khoh, Palpur, Tilwad, Gordhanpura, Mallana, Doondpuri, Jaisinghpura, and Kalwar. Conservationists fear this could set a damaging precedent.
A Critical Tiger Habitat is a legally designated core area within a tiger reserve that is focused on tiger conservation. These core areas are maintained as inviolate zones to provide optimal conditions for tiger survival and breeding. CTHs are scientifically identified and demarcated to ensure tiger populations can thrive, while also respecting the rights of forest dwellers and Scheduled Tribes.
Across India’s sweeping forests and teeming jungles, a quieter struggle unfolds—one marked by the relentless hum of machines, drills, and road rollers. In the name of progress, the natural world is being edged out, hectare by silent hectare. Many of India's national parks and wildlife sanctuaries—once imagined as protected havens—are now fractured by mining, infrastructure, and unchecked development. The forests of Sariska echo with the distant thunder of stone quarries. Iron ore mines claw at the edges of Kudremukh. In Buxa, the bauxite-rich earth bleeds into tiger corridors. These intrusions are not isolated. Roads carve through tiger reserves. Railways cleave migration paths. Hydroelectric dams inundate delicate ecosystems, and the illegally extracted earth—brick by brick, rock by rock—undoes what nature took centuries to build.
In the Western Ghats, one of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots, mining and hydroelectric projects threaten sanctuaries like Radhanagari and Sahyadri. In central and eastern India, copper, bauxite, and soapstone mining gnaw at the edges of Kanha, Sunabeda, and Jamwa Ramgarh. Even lesser-known sanctuaries like Kadavur, home to the elusive slender loris, face assault from illegal mining and brick kilns.
The loss is not just ecological, say activists and concerned citizens—it is existential. As habitats shrink and fracture, species are left marooned, populations decline, and human-wildlife conflict intensifies. The idea of a sanctuary—a place of safety, continuity, and refuge—becomes less tenable with each new stretch of highway or mining lease approved. What’s at stake is more than just trees or tigers. It is the fragile contract between humanity and the wild—a pact that now, more than ever, needs defending.
