PANJIM: NGO Goa Foundation and five landowners, who would be affected by the Tamnar project, have filed a Public Interest Litigation before the High Court of Bombay at Goa challenging the approval by the Central Electricity Authority for an alignment of the 400 kV High Tension Line (HTL).
The petitioners have alleged that the alignment directly affects forests, wildlife and a total of 1,31,082 trees in the ecologically sensitive area of the Western Ghats while seeking protection of Goa’s primary forests, wildlife and the ecologically sensitive terrain along the Western Ghats.
The NGO and landlords – Gajanan Vasant Sawaiker, Antonio Mario Barreto, Vishwasrao Desai, Vishwanath Krishna Deveshekar and Josephine Fernandes – have further mentioned in the PIL that they were not taken into consideration prior to CEA’s order dated November 28, 2018.
“The order is issued in violation of the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) 1980,” it added.
Consequent on the CEA approval, the forest clearances (stage I and stage II) granted, in parts, for erection of the HTL through parts of Goa, have also been challenged on the same grounds, in addition to several others. The PIL also challenges the possible destruction of 22,140 trees on private land.
The petition further avers that there is no formal approval from the Government of Goa for the proposed alignment. “In fact, it does not appear that the Goa Government even today is aware of the alignment and the ecological and social havoc it involves. The minutes of the crucial expert body meetings of the CEA at which the project was approved indicate that the Goa Government remained unrepresented nor is there any approval obtained for any change in land use under the provisions of the statutory Regional Plan 2021 in force. NOCs from panchayats, constitutional bodies in their own right, have also not been obtained as required by the impugned order itself. Despite this, some preliminary work has commenced,” Goa Foundation Director Claude Alvares said after filing the PIL.
The CEA, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Goa Electricity Department, Town and Country Planning Department and Ministry of Power, in addition to Goa Tamnar Transmission Project Ltd have been made respondents in the matter.
The petitioners have sought quashing and setting aside of the 2018 order besides other approvals granted for going ahead with the project thereafter.
