NAGPUR: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory body under ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) monitoring all 39 tiger reserves in India, will examine 15 mining and power project proposals impacting tiger conservation mostly in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
A three-member committee consisting of Urmila Pingle, NTCA member, Kishor Rithe, wildlife expert, and G N Wankhede, head of zoology department of Amravati University, has been constituted on July 2. This panel will be different from the one constituted on May 14, under P K Sen, former director of ‘Project Tiger’, to examine 17 projects in MP, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
The list of 15 project proposals was sent to NTCA by the MoEF. The three-member panel will do site appraisals of coal mining and thermal power plants vis-à-vis the buffer and corridor areas of tiger reserves and study their impact on tiger conservation in the landscape. It is likely to start work immediately and submit report to the NTCA in a month. These projects are awaiting environmental clearance and much will depend on the report of the panel. Of the 15 proposals, nine are in Maharashtra including seven in Chandrapur, one in Andhra Pradesh and five in Madhya Pradesh.
The projects in Chandrapur district are in the landscape of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR). The seven proposals in Chanda include Brahmapuri coal block of Push Steels & Mining (P) Limited, Dhorwara and Telwasa opencast mine projects of WCL in Majri (Bhadrawati); Gouri Deep opencast coal mine project of WCL, expansion of Pandharpaoni coal washery (from 1.6 mtpa to 2.6 mtpa) of Aryan Coal Beneficiation India in Rajura, coal washery of Fuelco Washeries and diversion of 50.47 hectare forest land for Majra coal block of Gondwana Ispat Limited. Apart from these, two projects for bauxite mine and iron ore are situated in the buffer of Chandoli National Park in Kolhapur district.
Chandoli is part of the newly-formed Sahyadri Tiger Reserve. In Madhya Pradesh, of the five projects, three are in Umaria, in the landscape of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. One in Andhra Pradesh is about constructing a memorial to late chief minister of Andhra Pradesh YSR Reddy in a wildlife sanctuary. Most of the 15 projects in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are lilely to affect corridor between Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Kanha-Pench-Tadoba and Satpuda-Pench tiger reserves. These areas and its landscapes are estimated to have over 250 tigers or just over one-fifth the wild tiger population in India.
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