The first meeting of Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) — under the new Narendra Modi Government on May 30 — will discuss a critical agenda, among others.
Among the 16 projects, lined up for discussion, one of the highest diversion of 680 hectares (ha) forest land has been proposed in Modi’s Gujarat for renewal of salt lease in Jamnagar.
According to sources, as many as nine projects pertain to mining in Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Karnataka. Two projects relate to road and one each on hydel power, defence, wind power and transmission line.
However, the proposed project that has caught attention is the renewal of salt lease. The site involving 679.44 ha of forest land is in the vicinity of Jamnagar Marine National Park. It had earlier been referred to National Board For Wildlife whose decision is pending.
However, as the NBWl is not functioning from the last eight months, its reconstitution will also be discussed in the FAC meeting. Furthermore, mangrove and other species like flamingos, black-necked crane, painted storks, spoonbills etc. are also largely found in the areas of low salinity.
The other proposal, calling for diversion of 706.52 ha of forest land in Odisha, is in favour of renewal of iron ore mining lease to SAIl. The issue was placed before the Forest Advisory Committee in its last meeting in April. The area relates to Bonai Forest Division, in Sundargarh district.
According to the documents, the area is a part of the movement area of elephants. According to the documents, presence of Royal Bengal Tiger has been ascertained from the pug mark found near quarry No.5 and mines area of Basuan of SAIl. The pug marks have been confirmed as that of a tigress.
The sources mentioned that going by the presence of diverse forms of wildlife, a Comprehensive Wildlife Management Plan covering the entire mining belt of Bonai & Keonjhar Division has been prepared for which the user agency had been asked to contribute Rs 43,000/- per ha for the total mining lease area.
Yet another coal mining project, involving the diversion of 200.465 hectares of forest land, is again in the Sundargarh district of Odisha. The user agency Orissa Power Generation Corporation limited has requested to grant diversion of forest land for a period of 30 years for Manoharpur Coal Block.
The forests in Sundargarh are particularly vulnerable to man-elephant conflicts, due to the moving herd of migrant as well as resident jumbos.