2 new highways will endanger green cover, wildlife sanctuaries | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: Two major proposed roads—the Pune-Nashik highway and the Chandrapur-Nagpur highway are set to claim thousands of trees in Maharashtra. The Chandrapur-Nagpur highway will also wreak damage on two tiger corridors—the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve and the Kanhargaon Wildlife Sanctuary.

The highway will take up 109 hectares of forest land, and a total of 32,025 trees will be cut for the project. The Pune-Nashik highway, on the other hand, will require the diversion of 62 hectares of forest land.

The proposals were placed before the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) last month, and the highways are being constructed by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). MSRDC’s managing director Anil Gaikwad declared that more roads like the Pune-Nashik and Chandrapur–Nagpur highways were required in the state.

Two years ago, the central government had rejected a proposal to construct an airport in Chandrapur, since it was close to the tiger sanctuary.

The Chandrapur-Nagpur highway will be 203.284 kilometres long and will connect to the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Mahamarg at Seldoh in Wardha district. It will pass through ten talukas—Seloo, Samudrapur, Warora, Bhadrawati, Chandrapur, Korpana, Rajura, Ballarpur, Pombhurna and Gondpipri of Chandrapur and Wardha districts.

The proposed road is also within five km of the protected area of Kanhargaon Wildlife Sanctuary and will cost ₹22,994.359 crore. MSRDC will have to acquire 2,135.03 hectares, most of which is agricultural land. The exact breakdown is 109 hectares of forest land, 151 hectares of government land and 1873 hectares of private land.

Approximately 39.17 km of the highway passes through the deemed eco-sensitive zone of the Kanhargaon Wildlife Sanctuary. A total of 32,025 trees will have to be cut for the entire road. MSRDC has claimed that it will create a new belt of 324 hectares and plant 4,40,663 trees.

The proposal was discussed in the expert EAC of MoEFCC. The EAC said that the distance of alignment from the protected area of Kanhargaon Wildlife Sanctuary was 1.12 km while the distance of the alignment from the protected area of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve was 18 km. The alignment passes through the tiger corridor and a wildlife movement patch.

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has recommended five animal underpasses of 50 metres each to avoid possible human-wildlife conflict. The EAC has recommended providing viaducts for approximately four km for the stretch passing through the tiger corridor. It also said that the feasibility of extending the alignment for a length of 83 km from Rajora to the downside of Kanhargaon Wildlife Sanctuary till Nawegaon would be explored to avoid possible human-wildlife conflict.

Bandu Dhotre, an environmentalist working in Chandrapur said, “There is immense urbanisation in this belt, and it is causing damage to wildlife.”

The Pune-Nashik highway will be 189.619 km long. It will start from Chimbali village on the outer ring road of Pune and end at the Surat-Chennai expressway interchange near Shirdi town. The road passes through 54 villages of Khed, Shirur, Ambegaon and Junnar talukas of Pune district and Sangamner taluka of Ahmednagar district.

The road will cost ₹17,539 crore and will require a diversion of 62.24 hectares of forest land. The exact number of trees to be cut has not been quantified by MSRDC, but it has said that a green belt will be developed in an area of 212 hectares.

The total land area required for the proposed project is approximately 1,545.59 hectares, of which 1429.71 hectares is private land, 53.6479 hectares is government land, and the remaining 62.24 hectares land forest land.

The length of the main carriageway is approximately 134 km, in which 11 tunnels will be constructed.