Kathmandu– It’s good news that the government is mooting a new law to declare natural heritage sites as protected zones for the conservation of environment. The draft bill of Environment Protection Act-2075 (first amendment) tabled at the parliament for deliberations has a special provision regarding environment conservation.
Once the bill is endorsed by the federal parliament and President Bidhya Devi Bhandari authenticates it, the government can declare the natural heritage sites, areas with rare wildlife species, plants and biodiversity, or a place with historic or cultural importance as protected zones. The law will come into effect after the government publishes the notice about law in the national gazette.
According to proposed bill, the government can declare the special zone as open and green zone. The law will prohibit activities that will affect the conservation within the protected zone.
“The government can declare any open or greenery area as protected zone with the objective to conserve environment in coordination with the concerned bodies while constructing any road, building, infrastructure for river management,” reads the proposed bill.
The proposed law will allow the government, after holding consultation with the concerned local bodies, to declare any specific area as highly sensitive in terms of environment. The government can declare ‘sensitive area’ if it sees any possibility of natural disaster, or negative impact in public health or environment due to excessive environmental pollution, soil erosion, excessive exploitation of natural heritage.
Likewise, the government can also stop the movement of people in any specific area that have been excessively polluted by declaring it as a polluted zone.
“Nepal government can declare any area as polluted zone and stop the movement of people there if the place is highly polluted due to disposal of harmful chemicals and garbage or any other reasons,” reads the bill.
