2 new highways will endanger inexperienced cowl, wildlife sanctuaries

The freeway will take up 109 hectares of forest land, and a complete of 32,025 timber shall be reduce for the challenge. The Pune-Nashik freeway, alternatively, would require the diversion of 62 hectares of forest land.

The proposals have been positioned earlier than the Knowledgeable Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Setting, Forests and Local weather Change (MoEFCC) final month, and the highways are being constructed by the Maharashtra State Highway Improvement Company (MSRDC). MSRDC’s managing director Anil Gaikwad declared that extra roads just like the Pune-Nashik and Chandrapur–Nagpur highways have been required within the state.

Two years in the past, the central authorities had rejected a proposal to assemble an airport in Chandrapur, because it was near the tiger sanctuary.

The Chandrapur-Nagpur freeway shall be 203.284 kilometres lengthy and can connect with the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Mahamarg at Seldoh in Wardha district. It should go by means of ten talukas—Seloo, Samudrapur, Warora, Bhadrawati, Chandrapur, Korpana, Rajura, Ballarpur, Pombhurna and Gondpipri of Chandrapur and Wardha districts.

The proposed highway can be inside 5 km of the protected space of Kanhargaon Wildlife Sanctuary and can price ₹22,994.359 crore. MSRDC must purchase 2,135.03 hectares, most of which is agricultural land. The precise breakdown is 109 hectares of forest land, 151 hectares of presidency land and 1873 hectares of personal land.

Roughly 39.17 km of the freeway passes by means of the deemed eco-sensitive zone of the Kanhargaon Wildlife Sanctuary. A complete of 32,025 timber must be reduce for the whole highway. MSRDC has claimed that it’s going to create a brand new belt of 324 hectares and plant 4,40,663 timber.

The proposal was mentioned within the knowledgeable EAC of MoEFCC. The EAC mentioned that the space of alignment from the protected space of Kanhargaon Wildlife Sanctuary was 1.12 km whereas the space of the alignment from the protected space of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve was 18 km. The alignment passes by means of the tiger hall and a wildlife motion patch.

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has beneficial 5 animal underpasses of fifty metres every to keep away from potential human-wildlife battle. The EAC has beneficial offering viaducts for roughly 4 km for the stretch passing by means of the tiger hall. It additionally mentioned that the feasibility of extending the alignment for a size of 83 km from Rajora to the draw back of Kanhargaon Wildlife Sanctuary until Nawegaon can be explored to keep away from potential human-wildlife battle.

Bandu Dhotre, an environmentalist working in Chandrapur mentioned, “There’s immense urbanisation on this belt, and it’s inflicting injury to wildlife.”

The Pune-Nashik freeway shall be 189.619 km lengthy. It should begin from Chimbali village on the outer ring highway of Pune and finish on the Surat-Chennai expressway interchange close to Shirdi city. The highway passes by means of 54 villages of Khed, Shirur, Ambegaon and Junnar talukas of Pune district and Sangamner taluka of Ahmednagar district.

The highway will price ₹17,539 crore and would require a diversion of 62.24 hectares of forest land. The precise variety of timber to be reduce has not been quantified by MSRDC, but it surely has mentioned {that a} inexperienced belt shall be developed in an space of 212 hectares.

The overall land space required for the proposed challenge is roughly 1,545.59 hectares, of which 1429.71 hectares is personal land, 53.6479 hectares is authorities land, and the remaining 62.24 hectares land forest land.

The size of the primary carriageway is roughly 134 km, during which 11 tunnels shall be constructed.