Adani power project gets wildlife board's nod, threatens 5,152 trees in Maharashtra's tiger corridor

The board also approved other projects affecting forests, alongside new conservation areas and wildlife habitat protections.

Amid the huge protest against the chopping of over 32,000 trees in Karjat for a hydroelectric power project, the State Board for Wildlife (SBWL) on Monday gave its assent to another power project that will lead to tree-hacking. The SBWL recommended a proposal to grant 136 hectares in the tiger corridor connecting the tiger reserves of Navegaon Nagzira Pench and Kanha Indravati to lay a 400-kV line from Raipur in Chhattisgarh to Tiroda in Gondia district of Maharashtra.

The project involves laying a 400-kV transmission line from Raipur to Tiroda in Gondia district, where Adani Power operates a 3,300-megawatt thermal power plant. (HT PRINT)

The project, being executed by Adani Power, will entail the chopping of 5,152 trees, 3,244 of which are less than 60 cm in diameter while 1,908 are over 60 cm. Adani Power has been told to deposit ₹447 lakh with the forest department for mitigation measures.

When contacted, the state’s chief wildlife warden M Sreenivas Reddy said the proposal was recommended to the Centre with some conditions. Rabin Ghosh, a spokesperson of Adani Energy, refused to comment.

SBWL has approved several other projects that infringe on the health of the environment and wildlife, one of them being another infra project in a tiger corridor in Painganga Wildlife Reserve, which will entail the cutting of 71 trees. It has also assented to a manganese mine project in Tumsar in Bhandara district, where 70.05 ha of forest land and 80.85 ha of private land were needed. Sources said that a few environmentalists on SBWL opposed this but officials claimed that not a single tree would be cut, as they would dig under the forest land. This is the tiger corridor that links the Pench and Navegaon Nagzira Tiger Reserves.

Environmentalist Bandu Dhotre from Chandrapur said, “Tiger corridors are important for tigers. The population of tigers in Vidarbha is increasing. They need to migrate from one place to another and the tiger corridor must be protected at all costs.”

The Board has also approved some pro-environment proposals, among them one to declare the newly expanded area adjoining the Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary a wildlife sanctuary. Tansa is in Thane district and houses two lakes, Tansa and Modak Sagar. The extension was necessitated because the Gargai Dam project being executed here by the BMC will see hundreds of thousands of trees chopped and nearly 658 hectares of forest land in the sanctuary as well as 186 hectares of private land submerged.

To make the sanctuary free of human habitation, SBWL has approved a proposal to include 588.767 hectares of revenue and private land from six villages—Ogda, Khodde, Tirmal, Pachghar, Phansad and Amle—in the newly expanded part.

In addition, proposals for 14 conservation reserves in Pune, Raigad, Nashik, Nandurbar, Thane, Palghar and Chandrapur districts were approved by the Board. It also approved proposals to declare 100.139 square kilometres of the Koka Wildlife Sanctuary and 255.79 square kilometres of the Jayakwadi Bird Wildlife Sanctuary as critical wildlife habitats. Jayakwadi is one of the largest lakes in the state and has a bird sanctuary.