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THE STATE board for Wildlife (SBWL) Wednesday rejected an application of the Road and Buildings (RB) department of the state government seeking diversion of 8.28 hectare land for upgrading state highway 111 (SH-111) which passes through Gir sanctuary, citing that the upgraded road would be “detrimental to wildlife”.
At its 20th meeting convened in Gandhinagar under chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, the SBWL took up for discussion the application of the R&B department seeking permission to upgrade 14.40 km stretch of the SH-111 which passes through Gir (west) wildlife division in Junagadh . The existing road is a kutcha road having carriage way of 5.50 metre. The R&B department has proposed to upgrade it to an all-weather road by constructing culverts across Hiran river and other streams which cross the highway as well as paving it with bitumen. It has also sought diversion of 8.28 hectare forest land for this project.
“The member secretary mentioned the proposal at the meeting and briefed the meeting about details of the project and its possible impact on wildlife in the Gir forest. The meeting agreed that an upgraded, all-weather road will be detrimental to the wildlife of Gir and therefore decided to reject the application seeking wildlife clearance for the project,” a source close to the proceedings of the meeting said.
Shyamal Tikardar, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (wildlife), who is member secretary of the GBWL, could not be reached for comments.
Incidentally, Visavadar-Talala-Delvada meter-gauge railway line also runs almost parallel to the SH 111 in Gir sanctuary and the railways has also applied with the state government seeking diversion of 148 hectare of forest land for converting this track into broad-gauge. The SBWL had reportedly cleared the proposal of the railways in September last year. However, Wednesday, the meeting considered minutes of the 19th meeting and recorded objections raised by Bhushan Pandya and Nishith Dharaiya to the proposal, with a noting that the proposal has, accordingly, not been forwarded to the NBWL.
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