E-Paper
Wildlife sanctuary near proposed Chandrapur greenfield airport: Panel to submit report by Oct 31
According to the Wildlife Institute of India, the area extending from Vihirgaon and Murti, where the airport has been proposed, to Rajura forest area and Kanhargaon proposed sanctuary zones, forms part of an identified tiger corridor
A six-member committee has been appointed by the Maharashtra forest department to check the feasibility of declaring a 265 sq km area at Kanhargaon in Chandrapur as either a wildlife sanctuary or a conservation reserve based on consultations with local residents.
The area of the proposed sanctuary falls in close proximity to the proposed 340-hectare Chandrapur greenfield airport, and if the sanctuary is declared, the airport area will fall within the eco-sensitive zone of the sanctuary, said members of the State Board of Wildlife (SBWL). However, conservation reserves do not have ESZ.
Maharashtra’s principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife), Nitin Kakodkar, who constituted the committee earlier this week directed that a report on the final status of the proposed sanctuary or conservation reserve needs to be submitted by October 31.
At a meeting of the SBWL in December 2018, the proposal to declare the sanctuary received in-principle approval. “However, during public consultations with local residents, there was stiff opposition to the declaration of a sanctuary. The matter was heard during the last (15th) SBWL meeting on August 7, and it was decided that we should revisit the matter, find out the opinion of locals and ensure the area gets the proposed protected status,” said Kakodkar. “Thus, this committee needs to assess the reasons for the opposition and submit details of villages against sanctuary declaration in less than a month.”
“During the last SBWL meeting, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said that while local residents around Kanhargaon were consulted but unfortunately nobody had taken a view about the tigers and other wildlife... how they are generally affected by human activities,” said SBWL member Kishor Rithe. He added Thackeray was for the approval for the sanctuary.
Rithe said that Kanhargaon was declared a sanctuary in-principle by the previous government. “However, former forest minister (Sudhir Mungantiwar) who belongs to Chandrapur district had requested that local villagers be consulted. Probably there was a fear that the greenfield airport which comes in ESZ of the proposed sanctuary may halt the sanctuary’s final notification. FDCM [Forest Development Corporation Of Maharashtra] also has a commercial interest in the area. Regrettably, the poor wildlife cannot fight these forces, and hence there is an overall delay in issuing the final sanctuary notification,” said Rithe.
According to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, the area extending from Vihirgaon and Murti, where the airport has been proposed, to Rajura forest area and Kanhargaon proposed sanctuary zones, forms part of an identified tiger corridor. The zone is also an important interstate link for tiger dispersal between Kawal and Indravati tiger reserves in Telangana and Chandrapur as well as the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve buffer, which is 38 km from the proposed airport site and 32 km from the Chaprala Wildlife Sanctuary, said a report by WII on the feasibility of the airport and proposed wildlife mitigation measures.
“The proposed site is within the critical habitat and connectivity corridors of tigers. The present site may or shall not be considered for the construction of the proposed airport,” the report said. It added there were 12 tigers in a 20-30 km radius around the proposed airport site between Rajura reserved forest and Kanhargaon. There are 15 tigers and at least 23 leopards within the 265 sq km Kanhargaon area.
The Chandrapur airport construction would require the diversion of 75-hectare forest land and destruction of 3,817 trees, according to the proposal by the Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC), which applied for forest clearances earlier this year. “We have submitted our views to the state government on the feasibility of the airport after studying MADC’s submissions and the WII report. We cannot disclose our submission at the moment as it is up to the state government to take a final call,” said Kakodkar.
Gaurav Upshyam, senior manager (regional connectivity scheme), MADC, said there was no other alternate site for the airport. “The proposed project cannot be shifted elsewhere,” he said.
