India's first wildlife skywalk to come up in Sikkim

India’s first wildlife skywalk will come up in Maenam wildlife sanctuary in the eastern state of Sikkim, Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Feb 18, 2013, 15:36:39 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India’s first wildlife skywalk will come up in Maenam wildlife sanctuary in the eastern state of Sikkim.

The Sikkim government had proposed to build a 22 kilometer rope-way from Maenam sanctuary to the skywalk to be built beyond on the edge of Bhalleydhunga steep face with rain shelter and public conveniences. The sanctuary, about 65 kilometres south from the capital city of Gangtok, is a popular tourist destination.

The environment ministry has approved the Sikkim government proposal for Rs. 500 crore skywalk - similar to one in Grand Canyon in north America, which attracts over 3,00,000 visitors a year - despite opposition from wild-lifers.

MK Ranjisinh, member of national board for wildlife, said that the state government instead of allowing encroachment of a wildlife area should allow people to take a walk in the wilderness areas. Another member Prerna Singh Bindra, while opposing the project, said the project would have more deleterious effect on the wildlife as it would lead to increased disturbance to animals in the sanctuary.

Kishore Rithe, another board member, said the skywalk would increase traffic load and destruct the entire habitat. Other wildlife activists believe that approving the project could mean similar requests from other state governments like Gujarat, Kerala and Himachal.

But, their claims were set aside in wake of Sikkim’s good record in wildlife protection.

The Sikkim government informed the ministry that it was only state in the country having around 30 % of its geographical area under protected area network. The state government also said that more forest area would be brought under the Central government protection regime.

The state government’s argument that just 2.10 hectares of land was required to build the rope-way and the skywalk would no way effect the wildlife sanctuary and the revenue generated would help to preserve wildlife came handy in convincing the ministry that the project was required.

A senior ministry functionary said that the state government has done a remarkable job in bringing more than 30% of area under protection and the proposed sky-walk would increase people’s interest in the wildlife.

With all hurdles cleared, the Sikkim government expects the private builder to complete the sky-walk in about two year’s time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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