After clearing the controversial project of widening National Highway-7 through the vulnerable Kanha-Pench tiger corridor, the Union environment ministry has now granted wildlife clearance for conversion of Gondia-Jabalpur railway line from narrow gauge to broad gauge affecting the same tiger corridor once again.
The 227-km Gondia-Jabalpur between Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh route used to be the one of the longest narrow gauge lines in the world but parts of it have already been converted. Of this 227km, a 77-km section between Balaghat-Nainpur cuts through the Kanha-Pench tiger corridor.
The wildlife clearance proposal of the project was presented before the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), chaired by environment minister Prakash Javadekar, and the NBWL standing committee approved it after National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) put forth the mitigation measures to reduce impact on wildlife. In collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the NTCA has recommended that underpasses of 30 metres each should be built at sensitive locations across the railway line as wildlife crossings. Though the NBWL approved wildlife clearance for doubling the line, a clearance for use of 75 hectares of forest land is still pending with the environment ministry.
While NTCA approved of WII's mitigation measures, back in 2010 and 2013, the apex tiger conservation body thought otherwise. The Kanha-Pench wildlife corridor is considered one of the most important ones in the country as it links two of the country's most important protected areas. When the proposal was before the ministry's expert committee on forests the NTCA itself rejected it twice, first in 2010 and later in 2013.
The NTCA had said in a report back then that doubling of the line through the wildlife corridor will increase wildlife deaths due to increase in rail traffic. It had also highlighted that the wildlife corridor was already fragmented and that doubling of the railway line will fragment it further.
Risk to wildlife
The NTCA had said in a report back then that doubling of the line through the wildlife corridor will increase wildlife deaths due to increase in rail traffic. It had also highlighted that the wildlife corridor was already fragmented and that doubling of the railway line will fragment it further.
