'To get project nod, green ministry babus hide facts'

Forest bureaucracy is in dock with members of the prime minister headed national wildlife board accusing them of getting some projects cleared by concealing facts regarding their impact on ecology.

Updated on: Oct 1, 2011, 02:07:14 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Forest bureaucracy is in dock with members of the prime minister headed national wildlife board accusing them of getting some projects cleared by concealing facts regarding their impact on ecology.

A letter by 11 non-official members of the board to environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan comes after the ministry transferred two Indian Forest Service (IoFS) officials CD Singh and AK Rana for restoring to alleged violation of norms for clearing projects.

The members have highlighted few more cases. Chief Wildlife Warden of Himachal Pradesh got Kol Dam project near Majathal Wildlife Sanctuary in Shimla and Solan districts cleared from the board's standing committee stating that no trees will be cut. "The state government in its reply to Central Empowered Committee had said that 51,262 trees would come under the submergence area," the letter said.

The officials proposed clearance to 240 MW thermal power plant with cement grinding unit and coal washery near Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh but failed to inform the committee about the ministry's regional office reporting gross violations of the Forest Conservation Act by the project proponents.

In another case, proximity of the proposed irrigation project to Ranthambore tiger reserve was not disclosed in the proposal submitted in April, 2011.

The standing committee is the statutory body to examine projects proposed near around 600 protected areas in India.

Members described the committee's decision making process as "flawed" saying it has been turned into a "clearing house" for projects with 59 projects cleared in two hours at April 25 meeting and most of them without much discussion.

"Such practices make mockery of the role of the standing committee," the letter said and added clearing so many projects in such a short span of time can lead to committee decisions being challenged in courts.

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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