So when the Board cleared the double tracking of the South Western Railway and recommended the project to the Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), for an Environment Clearance taking into consideration the mitigation measures recommended by the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, this came most unexpectedly, leading to many raised eyebrows in the State.
Activists and politicians have questioned the manner in which the double tracking project is being pushed forward ignoring the ground realities of villages where the line runs through. There are two issues here. The first is that the line passes through highly populated areas, where people’s homes are situated close to the railway line, and they face the prospect of losing their homes, and the other is that the line will disturb the forest and wildlife at Mollem. It was the second issue that the people expected the NBWL to take up as it is the task of the Board to safeguard the wildlife in the country. Will, therefore, the mitigation measures that have been proposed to protect the wildlife in the Mollem forest and the forest beyond the State boundary be adequate? Experts have a different opinion.
Thirty environment experts, associated with the country’s top institutes, have pointed out that the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) studies of the three proposed infrastructure projects are ‘considerably weak’ and ‘riddled with inadequacies’ and censured MoEF&CC for granting environmental clearances to the projects. One of the points they had mentioned was that the presence of tigers in the protected area had not been mentioned and that the statement that no endangered species were found in the area, was clearly misleading. In specific, with reference to the EIAs for the double tracking of the railway line they said that several important bird, mammal and insect species prevalent in the Western Ghats are missing.
This is a pertinent point as the SWR line does pass through a protected Tiger Reserve in Karnataka, besides the Mollem National Park and Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary. The expectation was that the NBWL would take special interest in according protection to the Tiger Reserve and the other forests through which the double laning is proposed. It now rests with civil society to stand up for the animals in the forest and fight for their protection. Goa’s green brigade is prepared to do this, but then why are the government bodies whose task it is to protect the wildlife not doing the task that is expected from them?
The hopes of the people now rest in the visit of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court that will be in Goa from January 21 to inspect the three infrastructure projects – double tracking of railway line, power transmission and national highway expansion – proposed across the protected areas. During hearings last month, the CEC had come down heavily on the State and Central authorities pointing out that it had received a number of complaints against the projects. While the CEC will be acting based on a complaint filed by Goa Foundation, the projects are being opposed by people from across the State, with NGOs, environmentalists, experts, doctors, engineers, students and citizens writing to the government against the projects. With the number of people, especially professionals, who have opposed the projects increasing, the projects have to be reconsidered.