The Legal Initiative for Forests and Environment disputed the claims of the National Highway Authority of India that has moved the Supreme Court for fast-track clearance of delayed highway projects.
Elaborating upon the Forest Advisory Committee meeting held in December 2012, Ritwick Dutta, environmental lawyer and member of LIFE said, “From the 29 projects put up for clearance, the FAC cleared as many as 17. Three of these proposals were from the NHAI and while two were cleared, one was sent back on the ground that they wanted more information.”
The two highway projects cleared were the Bhuj Bachau Road and upgradation of the Delhi-Sahara-npur-Yamunotri (SH 57) in favour of the UP State Highways Authority which require the diversion of over 200-ha forest .
Critiquing the Delhi-Saharanpur-Yamunotri project in detail, a team of lawyers from LIFE point out that the proposal had been prepared in “an extremely casual manner with no serious assessment of its long-term impact.” The shocking aspect was that while the NHAI demanded permission to divert forest land in Uttar Pradesh, the UPHSA had annexed a certificate of approval from the collector of the Mahasamund district in Chhattisgarh.
“Chhattisgarh has nothing to do with Uttar Pradesh and yet they went ahead and annexed a misleading certificate,” said a member of the FAC.
“The entire preparatory work has been done in an extremely shoddy manner with no attempt having been made to minimise the area of forest diversion given that the track record of compensatory afforestation across states remains poor,” he added.
Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Parikh points out , ` If NHAI and other organisations do not want to go through a process of green clearance then the Supreme Court should abolish the Environment ( Protection) Act 1986 and the Indian Forest Act set up primarily to protect our forests and environment.’
Quoting details from a former Supreme Court judgement, members of LIFE said, ` Thirty years ago, all arterial roads had huge peripheral forest cover which provided shade and shelter to the traveller but also a haven to a large variety of birds and other wild life. The removal of these forests .. has led to the annihilation of thousands of birds and reptilian life who nested in these trees.’
The NHAI in its plea wants environment and forest approvals to be delinked from road projects.