Ladakh to Arunachal, 30 Defence projects get wildlife panel nod

One of the most significant projects approved was a 10.26-km road link between Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) to the Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) Hut where senior Indian and Chinese Army officers meet to discuss border issues. At a height of 17,000 feet, DBO is the country’s northernmost military outpost where the highest airstrip is also located. Last October, the SC-NBWL had approved an alternate route to DBO for quick movement of troops and resources.

The Ministry of Defence had told the wildlife board panel that no road exists between DBO and the Old BPM Hut, which is frequented often by the Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel. “On the other hand, the Chinese side is building a concrete road between TWD (akin to DBO on our side) to the Chinese temporary meeting point of 9-18 metre width,” it stated.

The SC-NBWL took up over 30 defence and infrastructure projects – 26 of them located in Ladakh – for appraisal in their meeting on June 26 and approved all of them, minutes of the meeting show.

The meeting was chaired by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The projects require wildlife clearance since they are located across the Karakoram wildlife sanctuary and Changthang Cold Desert sanctuary in Ladakh, Dibang wildlife sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh and Pangolakha sanctuary in Sikkim.

The Karakoram sanctuary is home to the Tibetan antelope, Shapo, Wild Yak, Bharal, snow leopard, Himalayan grey wolf, lynx and marmot. The Dibang sanctuary is home to the leopard and tiger while the Asiatic Black Bear, among other fauna, resides in the Pangolakha sanctuary.

Other critical projects accorded approval include those for housing troops of artillery regiment and a field hospital; housing troops for reconnaissance and observation flight and holding of helicopters; construction of aviation infrastructure for a forward aviation base at Shyok and creation of technical infrastructure to locate equipment of short-range surface-to-air missiles.

The approval for housing troops engaged in reconnaissance and observation flights duty and holding of helicopters at Partapur will be important for flying operations in the Siachen Glacier, the Defence ministry said in its proposal.

The missile unit facility will include a command and control for operational activities, shelters for troops and training spaces.

For infrastructure along the LAC in the North-East, the wildlife board panel cleared the Malinye-Balua-Kapuda road over 121 hectares of forest land in the Anini forest division subject to conditions. The SC-NBWL said that the project has to include an animal passage plan to mitigate the project’s impact on faunal biodiversity. The road project was proposed to strengthen security infrastructure along the China border.

In Sikkim, a border outpost at Pangola in Pakyong district and the Rishi-Rongli-Kupup road improvement have been approved, subject to mitigation measures such as animal passage plans. Under Project Swastik, the Border Roads Organisation has proposed improvement of the Rishi-Rongli-Kupuo road to a national highway double-lane specification.