PANJIM: BJP MLA from the mining belt Ganesh Gaonkar has written to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests calling upon it to accept the recommendations of the State government in totality, subject to the final order of the Supreme Court in the writ petition. The State had recommended that buffer zones or Environmentally Sensitive Zones around national parks and wild life sanctuaries should be one kilometre from the boundary of such protected area or the natural boundaries whichever is lesser, and the existing mining activity in the proposed ESZ should be phased out within 5 to 10 years. Objecting to the draft notification for the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park Eco Sensitive Zone, Gaonkar has alleged that the western boundary of the sanctuary has numerous errors and needs correction and that the earlier draft notification by the MOEF and Dr Rajesh Gopal committee’s recommendation has been replaced by a new notification which is neither based on the State’s recommendation nor on the committee’s recommendation. The concept of phasing out the existing activities in the proposed ESZ as recommended by the State and Gopal committee report has been completely ignored while the basis of such non acceptance has not been cited, Gaonkar alleged while asking that till such phasing out is achieved, the existing mining activities should be regulated and not prohibited in the proposed ESZ. Gaonkar has taken the terms of reference of the approved draft notification for the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife sanctuary and the national park eco sensitive zone displayed on the MoEF website on October 30, 2013, which has sought objections or suggestions on the notification, as published in official gazette on March 3, 2014, with corrigendum seeking objections or suggestions from the public is likely to be affected and the Supreme Court order dated 21/4/2012 in Writ Petition 435/2012.