In first post-election meeting, wildlife board clears transmission lines in Gujarat’s flamingo habitat, Goa’s Mollem forest

The NBWL is primarily responsible for promotion and conservation of wildlife. It also appraises and approves development projects that fall within and outside protected areas such as sanctuaries, national parks and tiger reserves.

Even after intense protests against deforestation in Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary and Mollem National Park, the NBWL conditionally cleared the 400 k/V transmission line on 27 hectares of forest. NBWL said that project work should not commence unless the proposal on the Karnataka side is recommended by the board.

Goa’s citizens have been protesting the transmission line as well as a railway line doubling and highway widening proposal passing through the sanctuary and the national park under the ‘Save Mollem’ banner.

The transmission line will involve felling of 7,881 trees in a forest located in the Western Ghats and home to tiger, gaur, sloth bear, an array of amphibians and reptiles. The matter was also heard by the Supreme Court and in April 2022 it had ordered that the transmission line should be aligned with an existing 110 Kv corridor line to reduce the extent of deforestation.

An expert committee which was formed to carry out a site visit recommended to NBWL that the project’s right of way should be divided into a ‘wire zone’, for areas below the powerline and ‘border zone’ for areas between the powerline for plantations.

In the conditions imposed with the clearance, NBWL said that the transmission pillars should be guarded so that wild animals do not have contact with them. It also asked the project proponent to study the impact of transmission lines on biodiversity and wildlife and ensure that the sanctity of the habitat is not disturbed.

Two approvals were granted for erection of transmission lines in Gujarat. One in the Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary in the Great Rann of Kutch and another in the Wild Ass sanctuary in Little Rann of Kutch over 100 hectares. The proposal in the wild ass sanctuary was for a 765 kV D/c Lakadia – Ahmedabad transmission line to evacuate power from 4.5 gigawatts Khavda renewable energy zone in Surendranagar district. The NBWL said that work on the project would have to implement mitigation measures as given by the Wildlife Institute of India.

“To prevent impact on avifauna, bird diverters to be installed on earth wire to make it visible to birds from long distance to prevent any possible collision of birds,” stated one of the mitigation measures to protect birds. The wild ass sanctuary is home to wild asses, jackals, bluebulls, desert fox, Indian wolf , jungle cat, chinkara. However, the landscape is especially important as an important wintering, breeding site for migratory birds, especially the lesser flamingos, who build nesting mounds on the landscape during winters.

Kedar Gore, Director, The Corbett Foundation said that the Little Rann of Kutch is an entry point into India for several migratory birds. Apart from flamingos, it is an important habitat for other threatened bird species such as Asian Houbara, vultures, cranes and storks. “Given the unique ecosystem that attracts rare and threatened species in this landscape, the least they should do is to lay the new power lines underground ideally. There are many examples of power lines laid under ground in India and abroad,” Gore said. As per the project proposal, 39 towers will be erected for the transmission line.

The wildlife board also approved widening of the National Highway 46 between Itarsi and Betul through the tiger corridor between Satpura and Melghat tiger reserve. The project will use 101 hectares of forest land and approval was granted with the condition that the National Highways Authority of India will build animal passages consisting of underpasses and overpasses. Further, the NBWL also directed for a site inspection to be carried out by National Tiger Conservation Authority, Wildlife Institute of India and environment ministry officials to examine the animal passage plans and check if any violations were carried out by NHAI.

Tiger corridors help wildlife to migrate between habitats and linear infrastructure such as highways prove to be fatal for them when they attempt to cross the roads. Animal underpasses help tigers, bears and other mammals to migrate between habitats safely.