The Regional Empowered Committee (REC) of Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India, in its 128th meeting, approved the proposal to fell 7,694 trees in Chandrapur and Brahmapuri districts of Vidarbha for laying of pipeline for Ghodazari Branch Canal of Gosikhurd National Project recently. The Irrigation Department of Government of Maharashtra submitted a proposal seeking approval of the Central Government for this project under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, last year. The proposed area falls within the boundary of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) and lies inside the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ).

 

Despite this fact, the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has also approved the proposal and gave green signal to cut a massive number of trees in the tiger reserve. The construction of pipeline will be carried out on 38.80 hectare land which all comes under the Reserve Forest and Protected Forest. The 38.28 hectare land comes under Brahmapuri district whereas 10.52 hectare land is in Chandrapur district. MoEF&CC also asked the Irrigation Department to do Compensatory Afforestation (CA) over 40 hectare of non-forest revenue land from total of 194.67 hectare in Madanapur village, Chimur in Chandrapur district. The Committee recommended that trenching work be carried out sequentially to minimise the overall impact on forest areas and that trenches be closed within a reasonable time to prevent wild animals from falling in.

 

It also recommended that the work shall be undertaken only during daytime hours, under the supervision of the Forest Department and suitable measures must be adopted to prevent any animal casualties during the trenching period. It also stated that the Forest Department shall ensure that the enrichment plan for Compensatory Plantation (CA) is aligned with the approved management plan of the area concerned. Upon completion of the project work, the Irrigation Department shall convert the disturbed areas into grasslands, at the project’s cost excluding areas designated for inspection or maintenance paths.