Overview
- A bench of CJI B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran extended its 2023 Goa order to a nationwide bar on mining inside national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and within a one‑kilometre buffer.
- Jharkhand must notify 126 compartments spanning 31,468.25 hectares as the Saranda Wildlife Sanctuary within three months, excluding KP‑2, KP‑10, KP‑11, KP‑12, KP‑13 and KP‑14 under the Management Plan for Sustainable Mining.
- The court directed wide publicity that individual and community rights under the Forest Rights Act and provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act will continue after notification.
- Essential infrastructure such as schools, rail lines and dispensaries may operate, and certain ancillary activities of SAIL in the region can continue, though no mining is allowed in restricted zones.
- Rebuking Jharkhand for shifting positions and delays, the bench said the state cannot evade its constitutional duty to protect Saranda’s ecologically significant sal forest.