The apex Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the environment ministry has gifted away 5,000 hectares of pristine forest, much of which provides crucial corridors for animals to move from one habitat to another.
The FAC has recommended the diversion of 60 hectares of forest located within the Gola corridor in Uttarakhand. Green lawyer Ritwick Datta points out, “This corridor is the only feasible path for the movement of elephants across the Gola river but it is being diverted for the construction of the NH-87 connecting Rampur to Kathgodam.”
An oil pipeline being constructed in the Sambhalpur Elephant corridor will adversely impact the movement of elephants moving between Orissa and Jharkhand.
Mr Biswajit Mohanty, member of National Board of Wildlife, described this decision as “absolutely shocking.” “I took up this issue in 2010 and the former environment minister Jairam Ramesh wrote to the oil corporation asking them to relocate the pipeline to a distance of 40 kms,” said Mr Mohanty.
“Local, officials of the oil company fraudulently got a certificate from the revenue officials stating this was not a forest corridor and the FAC has gone ahead and okayed it,” said Mr Mohanty.
India has around 25,000 wild elephants and their corridors have increasingly shrunk to narrow strips of land.
A prime sal forest in Saranda covering ten square km in the west Singhbhum district in Jharkhand will be axed in favour of a prominent steel firm while a steel & power company has been given another 534 hectares of forest for mining.
The Luhri Hydro Eelctric Project in Himachal Pradesh and the Datuni irrigation project in Madhya Pradesh have also been green signalled large swathes of forest land.
Mr Dutta questioned why such a crucial decision was hurried through even though the quorum of members at the meeting remained incomplete. “It has been over two months but the environment ministry has still to appoint a DG Forests. During this January 21-22 FAC meeting, an additional DGF was officiating while other Forest Advisory Committee members, including an additional commissioner, ministry of agriculture and one of the two non official member was absent.”