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| Tiger pugmarks. (Representation picture. Courtesy : Wikimedia Commons) |
- Nine road development works taken up in Protected Areas without prior approvals
- The road development projects are located inside Kawal Tiger Reserve, Kinnerasani & Pakhal Wildlife Sanctuaries
Hyderabad, August 23, 2021:
There are 29 states in India and all state governments often resort to chest-thumping for various reasons. One such reason for Telangana government often thumps its chest about is its afforestation scheme - 'Telangana ku Haritha Haram' as part of which it claims to have planted 210.85 crore saplings since the scheme's launch in 2015.
Unfortunately, Telangana government seems to be more interested in planting new saplings than protecting the existing forests and adhering to forest conservation laws of the land.
It has come to light that the Telangana government violated Forest Conservation and Wildlife Protection laws by taking development of as many as nine BT roads inside Protected Areas (Protected Areas include sanctuaries, national parks, Tiger reserves), without obtaining necessary approvals from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
Violations inside Kawal Tiger Reserve, Kinnerasani and Pakhal Wildlife Sanctuaries
According to the minutes of the 49th meeting of Regional Empowered Committee(REC) of the MoEF&CC, Telangana government has proposed 24 road development projects inside various Protected Areas, including Tiger Reserves and Tiger Corridor forests, under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) to connect remote Tribal hamlets and villages with pucca roads.
Of these 24 projects, nine came up for discussion in the 49th REC meeting held online this month on 17th. These nine projects fall in Kawal Tiger Reserve(4 projects), Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary(3 projects) and Pakhal Wildlife Sanctuary(2 projects).
What are the violations?
The Telangana government, despite being the custodian of laws went ahead and broke them. Without obtaining necessary approvals from the MoEF&CC the state government went ahead with chopping down trees, clearing vegetation and laying of roads.
The minutes of meeting details,
"After deliberation on each proposal, the committee noted that the most of the road stretches have already been completed/partially completed by the User Agencies without prior approval of the competent authority, in violation of FCA, 1980. The Committee considered such works in violations very seriously and directed the PCCF, Telangana to ensure no works will be carried out further till the approval from the competent authority is obtained."
When government violates laws
The REC seems as shocked as anyone would be at the gross violations. It has directed Integrated Regional Office of the MoEF&CC in Hyderabad to write to MoEF&CC, New Delhi regarding the violations and requesting for further orders on how to proceed with the issue.
This was done keeping in mind the fact that the violations are by the State Government, for implementation of a Central Government scheme, leaving the REC in a fix regarding how to proceed. If the violator would have been a private company or individual, the REC would have implemented fines and penalty without any hesitation.
Committee to conduct site inspections
Now that the damage has already been done in nine out of the 24 projects proposed in Protected Areas and the status quo of other projects is not known, the REC has decided to conduct site inspections of all the 24 sites where the road development projects have been proposed.
It has to be seen what does the REC find in its site inspection and what decision the MoEF&CC takes regarding the violations by Telangana government.
Here are the minutes of the 49th REC meeting for your reference:
Very well written...
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