Perennial debate: wildlife versus defence

Wildlife activists had raised a red flag over four key defence related projects saying it endangers India’s fragile bird population prompting the Defence Ministry to ask the Supreme Court to exempt defence projects from mandatory environment approval process.

Updated on: Jul 18, 2012, 17:17:20 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Development of projects for strategic importance for India has hit the wildlife roadblock.

Wildlife activists had raised a red flag over four key defence related projects saying it endangers India’s fragile bird population prompting the Defence Ministry to ask the Supreme Court to exempt defence projects from mandatory environment approval process.

Only one of the five projects examined by the standing committee of National Board for Wildlife was approved at a recent meeting with five strict conditions. The others were not cleared considering the adverse impact these projects could have on the local wildlife.

The Border Security Force, who wanted approval for a road through Dampa tiger reserve in Mizoram and construction of a road through Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary, made a strong pitch for these proposals.

On the Dampa proposal, the BSF officials said that as per international regulations it was not possible to locate the border post and the road outside the fence as suggested by a non-official member of the committee MK Ranjitsinh. He wanted the change in road’s alignment to ensure that the remaining areas of the park – an important tiger habitat --- remained unbroken.

With regard to road in Kutch, the BSF said the road was strategically important and will eventually cut down the distance between different border posts from about 300 kms to 25 kms. “The proposal will benefit 10,000 security personnel who are posted in unfenced stretches of the border with Pakistan,” he said at the recent meeting.

The non-official members of the committee Sinh, Divyabhanusinh Chavda and Asad Rahmani said the sanctuary was the only nesting site for flamingos in Asia and huge traffic movement would have a negative impact on the habitat. They also said that the construction of the road in these areas would restrict the movement of water, and therefore, the associated dependant wildlife.

The other two projects of strategic importance were in Andaman and Nicrobar islands. The Indian Navy wants to construct a structure within Tillanchang sanctuary as there is no fishing or shipping activity, and, hence, an area of strategic importance. And, the Indian Coastal Guards want to have a radar system installed on Narcondam Island Sanctuary.

Wildlife experts were wary of the proposals as Tillanchang sanctuary is best habitat for Nicobar Megapode and Narcondam is the only home for just 300 remaining hornbills. They felt that these projects destroy fragile ecosystems for the beautiful birds.

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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