The much-touted wildlife corridor project between Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary and Sukhna lake Reserved Forest is likely to see the light of the day soon.
After the passage of land Acquisition Bill in both the houses of Parliament, the UT Forest department has swung into action to work out the modalities for developing wildlife corridor in the periphery area of Chandigarh. The corridor would connect Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary spreading over 2610.99 hectares with 105.57 hectares area of lake Reserve Forest. Nearly 450 acres of agricultural land of Kaimbwala village between the two forest areas would be utilised to develop this wildlife corridor.
While nearly 58 acres land has been acquired for the project, the acquisition of about 392 acre land remains an uphill task for the UT Administration.last year, the wildlife corridor project was put on the back burner with the Administration deciding to wait for new land acquisition law before acquiring land for the project.
Planning Commission has already in-principle approved the project to develop wildlife corridor here.Talking to The Pioneer, Santosh Kumar, UT Conservator of Forests-cum-Wildlife Warden, said "with the passage of land acquisition Bill in both the houses, the Forest department has started working out the modalities of the project.
Giving details, he said: The proposed corridor spreading over an area of 450 acres would connect the lake Reserved Forest with Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary ensuring a stable habitat for the animals and will also restrict them from venturing into residential areas. The wildlife corridor would be developed in phases. And, the project is likely to be completed in 8-10 years."
"The passage which is at present agricultural land would be utilised to connect the two forest areas. So far, about 58 acres of land for the project has been acquired by the Administration. In its afforestation drive over the acquired land, the UT Forest and Wildlife department has planted trees specially fruit trees like jamun, mango among others," he added.
At present, the Sukhna wildlife habitat has a large number of Sambars, peacocks and endangered species like spotted deer, porcupine, pangolin, wild pigs, cheetal etc. The lake Forest Reserve is also inhabited by sambars and other animals.The wildlife corridor is also aimed at keeping the animals away from the city. Sambars, monkeys, snakes, pythons are often found to have strayed into residential areas posing a risk to the human life. In the past, several such complaints have been registered.
The Conservator of Forests-cum-Wildlife Warden further said "after examining the clauses in the new land acquisition law, we would finalise the cost projections. And, the process of land acquisition for the project would be started after the Ministry's nod."
The UT Master Plan-Vision 2031 has also proposed developing a wildlife corridor stating that efforts should be made to notify some of the land on sanctuary's periphery as forest to provide a corridor for wildlife to other forest areas as already planned by UT Forest department to extend the Sukhna Reserve Forest to parts of Kaimbwala village.
land acquisition has remained a controversial issue for the UT Administration in the past. Notably, the already scrapped mega projects of the Administration had come under the scanner of Union Home Ministry in 2009 which had put on hold further land acquisitions and had also pointed out procedural lapses in land acquirement and allotment in a special audit of projects.
The MHA had also directed the Administration to get approved the plan by a competent authority and also to get clearance from the MHA for the land acquisition proposed for the projects in the peripheral areas. Further, the Administration was directed to approach the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to carry out environment impact assessment before going in for further land acquisition for any project in accordance with the development plan of the periphery.