Protected Area Network in Orissa - Vasundhara

Issues in Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary• Confusion Over Legal Status of Sunabeda Wildife Sanctuary:The process of final notification of Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary and inclusionof Revenue villages within the boundary of the sanctuary is fraught withinherent contradictions. First declaration for constitution of the Sanctuary asper official notification dates back to 26 th July 1983 (vide letterno.16045/FFAH) and the final notification was issued on 10 th May 1988 (videletter no. 10772/FFAH) as per the note prepared by the then DFO Mr. H.K.Bist.The prevailing law for governance of protected areas says that the collectorshould proceed to determine, proclaim the boundaries of sanctuary and settlerights of people (within the purview of u/s19-25 of Wildlife Protection Act,1972) before acquisition of revenue land or their inclusion within theboundary of Sanctuary. But in Sunabeda, the demarcated boundary of thewild life sanctuary area was first declared vide office order no. 5023 dated15.11.97 by the Collector of Nuapada, around nine years after the finalnotification. If the area had been falling completely within reserve forest thenonly the wild life authorities could have skipped the legal procedure ofsettling rights of people living within. As in case of reserve forestsdetermination of rights u/s19-25 is not required as no private right isexpected to exist there and can be automatically declared as sanctuary u/s 26A. But in case of Sunabeda wild life sanctuary, the initiation of settlement ofrights should not have been delayed, as the area doesn’t come under anyreserve forest or territorial water (Letter of the Collector dated17th December,2000, bearing letter no. 5440). Presently there are four Gram Panchayatsnamely Sunabeda, Soseng, Bharuamunda and Kermeli consisting of 30Revenue villages, which are coming under sanctuary area. Apart from theseprocedural contradictions with respect to settlement of rights of peoplestaying within the boundary of the sanctuary, there are many differences97