The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) informed the National Green Tribunal on Wednesday that they will be submitting a plan on the mitigation measures for movement of animals across NH7 in two weeks. The NGT has been hearing a matter involving three Maharashtra-based NGOs, who want the four-laning of NH7 – between Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh – to be stopped as it cuts through the Kanha-Pench tiger corridor, one of the best in the country and will involve felling of over 20,000 trees. This critical corridor, according to the environment ministry's own data, is home to 100 tigers, and bisons.
During Wednesday's hearing, MoEFCC informed NGT's principal bench, that they had a meeting with NHAI, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Maharashtra government and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) last Sunday to discuss the measures to mitigate the impact of NH7 widening on wildlife. Another round of meetings will take place and the ministry and NHAI are to submit a mitigation plan to NGT. According to sources, the NHAI, after trying to downgrade WII's recommendations, is now trying to work out a compromise to expedite the widening project, which has to begin with felling of thousands of trees.
Before today's hearing, the MoEFCC had remained ambiguous on the mitigation plan prepared by Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehra Dun, while the NHAI has been for long been trying to mould the mitigation plan to suit their convenience, cutting it down to size to reduce the expenditure. WII's original plan involved Rs 750 crores of expenditure as it involved building overpasses and underpasses, but NHAI pared it down to Rs 244 crores and eventually to Rs 4.95 crore. But, after the NTCA last week informed NGT about the tiger corridor's importance, NHAI did a volte-face and said they are willing to build longer underpasses and the hearing was followed by the Sunday meeting.
The principal bench of the NGT, chaired by justice Swatanter Kumar, also made it clear to the MoEFCC, NHAI and Maharashtra government that no trees should be felled until mitigation plans are submitted. This has caught NHAI in a sticky situation as the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court has already allowed felling of trees. In fact, justice Swatanter Kumar got riled up and asked the ministry's counsel as to how the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court had passed tree felling orders despite an interim stay by the NGT principal bench.
