A total of 43 projects are lined up for the forthcoming meeting of the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) under Environment Ministry on September 22-23. Amongst the projects is the 3,000 MW Dibang hydroelectric power project in Arunachal Pradesh for which the erstwhile UPA Government had twice denied green clearance.
According to sources, mining heads the list with 17 projects across the States of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West-Bengal and Karnataka and Rajasthan. These projects involve diversion of about 2,400 hectares of forestland. Odisha has one of the largest mining projects of 1038.187 hectares of forest land for open cast coal project to M/S MNH Shakti ltd in Jharsuguda and Sambalpur Forest Divisions. Next in queue are eight road projects besides three railway line projects. These also include the diversion of 86.6255 hectares of forest land spread across three forest divisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong for construction of Sevok Rongpo New Broad Gauge Railway in northern West Bengal by North Frontier Railways.
However, fingers are crossed over the ultimate fate of the long time pending proposal of diversion of 5056.5 hectares of forest land for construction of Dibang Multi Purpose Project on Dibang River in lower Dibang valley district in Arunachal. The proposal that had been rejected in April and July last year, figures once again in the current list of proposals.
According to sources, the Power Ministry is especially pursuing the project with MoEF, to review the decision of FAC and accord the stage-I forest clearance to the project.
The sources informed that the ministry has however written to Arunachal Government, reminding that the FAC in its earlier meetings had “recommended rejection of the proposal citing the biodiversity of the proposed area”.
According to the FAC minutes, the proposed site is home to a large number of endemic and endangered flora and fauna. Apart from this, the Rs 1,600 crore National Hydroelectric Power Corporation ltd project will also call for felling of 3.24 lakh trees.
Further, since 170 hectares of the proposed site is within 10km radius of the Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary, clearance from National Board For Wildlife clearance is also required for the project.