Rajasthan High Court Sets Interim One-Kilometre Construction-Control Zone Around Jawai Leopard Caves and Corridors

The petitioner sought mapping of leopard caves in the Jawai region, a ban on construction within 1,000 metres of the foothills of leopard caves, curbs on barbed-wire fencing, and regulation of tourism and safaris (para 1). Interim orders of March and April 2026 restricted safari timings, restrained construction outside village abadi, stayed mining and brought the State's safari SOP into operation (para 1). The Forest Department admitted that much of the habitat lies on revenue and private land and that no policy regulates private construction by reference to wildlife movement (para 2). An intervening tourism society proposed an absolute restriction only up to 50 metres from caves (para 4).

The Court held that Articles 21, 48A and 51A(g) and the Wild Life (Protection) Act do not confine protection to notified boundaries; caves and corridors on revenue or private land cannot be excluded because of ownership (para 6). The precautionary principle requires preventive action against a credible risk of irreversible harm, while ordinary village needs must be distinguished from destructive commercial activity (para 6). Following T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad (2023), a uniform zone can intensify man-animal conflict and regulation is preferred to prohibition (para 7); the Aravali Hills decision (2025) stressed geo-referenced ecological assessment (para 8). Leopard-specific and road-ecology studies treated the first kilometre as a distinct ecological variable, though none fixes a universal rule (para 9). Neither the petitioner's absolute 1,000-metre ban nor the intervenor's 100-metre proposal could be accepted as final, since no Jawai-specific assessment existed (para 10). But unrestricted construction risked irreversible harm, so, reading the studies with the State's own one-kilometre order of 2015, the Court adopted one kilometre as an interim, revisable construction-control and mandatory-scrutiny zone (para 10).