Jodhpur, Sept. 6 -- The Rajasthan high court has imposed restrictions on new construction and land-use activities within a one-kilometre aerial distance of identified leopard caves, dens, breeding and resting sites, wildlife corridors and other critical habitat features in the Jawai region of Pali district. A division bench of justices Pushpendra Singh Bhati and Rekha Borana said the area would operate as a Leopard Habitat Construction-Control Zone until the state completed scientific mapping, ecological and carrying-capacity assessments and framed a comprehensive policy for the region. In its judgment pronounced on Saturday, the bench clarified that the one-kilometre limit was an interim regulatory threshold and not a permanent ecological boundary or an absolute no-construction zone. The court directed strict enforcement of the state government's March 31, 2015 order regulating activities within one kilometre of notified protected-area boundaries. New hotels, resorts, guesthouses, homestays, tourism camps, industrial units and mining activities will not be permitted within the zone. Revenue authorities have also been restrained from approving land conversions contrary to the order. However, the restrictions do not prohibit all human activity. The court permitted residential construction within existing village abadi areas and repairs or reconstruction of lawful houses, provided there is no material expansion towards protected habitat features. Essential public facilities, including schools, anganwadis, dispensaries and drinking-water infrastructure, will also be allowed. Traditional agriculture, grazing and customary livelihoods have been protected, subject to safeguards against habitat fragmentation and obstruction of wildlife movement. The bench prohibited construction, hill cutting, blasting, excavation, roads, tracks, boundary walls and other material alterations on cave-bearing hills, connected foothills, breeding and maternal sites, movement corridors, wetlands and other critical leopard habitats. The court observed that the existing regulatory framework did not adequately control construction and land-use activities on private and revenue land based on the actual location of leopard caves, movement routes and habitat. The deputy conservator of forest, Pali, has been directed to prepare a provisional geo-referenced map within eight weeks in coordination with the revenue department and the Jawai Safari and Eco-Tourism Coordination Committee. The map will identify critical habitats, water sources, settlements, roads and tourism clusters and be displayed publicly....