Times of India: Vijay Pinjarkar: Nagpur: Friday, June 23, 2023.
Even as the state board for wildlife (SBWL) has given nod to the manganese ore mining proposal in Guguldoh, located in Pench to Navegaon-Nagzira tiger reserve wildlife corridor, information under the RTI Act points out several discrepancies by the forest department and the unusual hurry by wildlife and territorial officials to clear the proposal without giving little thought on its repercussions.
Guguldoh mining block in Ramtek is spread over a 105- hectare area of which 99. 50 hectares is a dense mixed forest and hills area with rich presence of flora and fauna. Even as the forest department report claims 37,000 trees will be felled for the project, the number may well be over 1 lakh trees. On Sunday, a visit to the Guguldoh site found direct sightings of herbivores and pugmarks trail of an adult tiger on the Manegaon lake bed.
The Raipur-based firm Shanti GD Ispat & Power Limited, which has bagged the project, has now sought environment clearance (EC) for the project. Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has scheduled a public hearing at the mining site on July 10.
There are several errors in the RTI information given to Swaccha Association chief Anasuya Kale-Chhabrani. The PCCF (wildlife) office says the Guguldoh proposal was put up before the 19th SBWL meeting on September 21, 2022, but was deferred as it was incomplete. However, the official agenda of the 19th SBWL meeting, which is with TOI, makes no mention of either the Guguldoh proposal or the Durgapur extension coal mine in Chandrapur. The RTI states that PCCF (wildlife) office received the proposal from APCCF (wildlife) office on September 16, 2022. The PCCF sought additional information on September 19 as the proposal was incomplete. Yet, it was put up before the meeting held on September 21. “If the mining proposal was incomplete, why was it put up before the meeting? The proceedings of the meeting were also illegal as the SBWL meeting was held without the constitution of the board as per the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. All the expert members appointed by the Uddhav Thackeray government in the earlier board were removed most likely to get clearances for such detrimental projects,” alleged Chhabrani.
While the PCCF (wildlife) office shared the names of the SBWL members who were removed from the posts, it was shy of sharing the notification on the appointment of new members. It also did not share the GR appointing the standing committee of SBWL. Reply to another RTI query reveals that the deputy director of Pench, Prabhu Nath Shukla while submitting Part III (mandatory compliance for project proponent) has mentioned that the proposed mining site is home to many endangered species including the tiger.
Shukla conducted a site visit on February 22, 2022. Shukla’s reply states, “The site falls in the Wildlife Institute of India (WII)-identified corridor connecting Pench-NNTR. Therefore, it is desirable to obtain the technical opinion of WII (Dehradun) before according approval to the project. ” The RTI information reveals that the Nagpur territorial officials and senior officers like APCCF and PCCF (wildlife) overlooked the remarks by Shukla and chose to go with the report submitted by Pench ACF Atul Deokar, who was junior to Shukla and recommended the project with mitigation measures. Deokar’s report was based on a site visit on December 18, 2021
Even as WIL views recommended RTI Reveals that that the wildlife mitigation plan for the mining project was prepared by Chandrapur Forest Acadamay, which doesn't even have the mandate or experience to decide on mitigation measures.
The wildlife mitigation plan has suggested the development of artificial bird nests as 37,000 trees are going to be cut and forest area will be deforested and habitat will be disturbed. “Forest officials admit that the damage is going to be huge but still recommended the project. . Even the expert forest department will not be able to recreate the lost nature in Guguldoh,” says Chhabrani. RTI says that forest officials have suggested fencing the mining area to avoid conflict. “This will block the corridor. If this is the solution then the forest department should first fence TadobaAndhari so that man-animal conflict is avoided in the district,” says green activist Shrikant Deshpande.
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