On Wednesday, the Supreme Court stated orally that the practical difficulties of having a uniform mandate of 1 kilometre Eco Sensitive Zone for all protected forests across the country must be taken into account. A division bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath was hearing a batch of applications filed in the TN Godavarman Thirumalpad case, some of which sought exemption from the Supreme Court's June 3 directive mandating 1 KM ESZ for all protected forests.

"The orders cannot be given in the air. While issuing orders, some ground realities must also be considered ", said Justice Gavai. According to the judge, there is a forest area on the route between Jaipur city and the airport. "If the condition (for ESZ) is accepted in such places, the entire road will have to be demolished or converted into forests. The city will then be cut off from the outside world ", said Justice Gavai.

The bench issued an order exempting the Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Mumbai's suburbs from the June 3 order, granting an application filed by CREDAI-MCHI. The order took into account an earlier order that exempted Mumbai's Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing CREDAI, told the bench that the June 3 order was made by deciding some applications filed 20 years ago, and that the bench had ignored several subsequent notifications issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

"Instead of going to each State Forest Department, one permission could be obtained from the Ministry of Environment and Forest," the Bench proposed. The Solicitor General informed the court that he must take instructions on the matter.