Team Herald
PANJIM: As against the claim of Goa Tamnar Power Transmission Limited (GTTPL) that only 14,000 trees would be felled for 400 KV high tension line project, the NGO Goa Foundation has revealed, with documentary evidences, that a whopping 1,31,082 trees would be cut from Narendra in Karnataka to Xeldem in Goa for the entire power project.
In a media interaction held earlier this week, the GTTPL Head Ninad Pitale had said that so far 2,670 tress were cut for the Sangod Sub-Station after obtaining necessary permissions and 9,367 trees were planted at various locations. He had said that total 14,000 trees would be felled for the entire project.
Goa Foundation Director Claude Alvares in a statement issued further said that the most of the trees fall within the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats region and its ESAs (Eco Sensitive Areas).
The project requirement for the Karnataka side is 62,289 trees, whereas in Goa, it is 68,793.
“The project has already illegally felled 2,849 trees on Survey No 21/1 of Sangod village, in connection with which the High Court at Goa has admitted a writ petition filed by the Foundation,” he said.
Alvares said that for the Sangod-Mapusa stretch, the Tamnar Project has sought permission for diversion of forest land involving 18,427 trees. From Goa border to Xeldem, the number of forest trees sought to be diverted is 15,772. From Xeldem to Sangod, the number of trees listed for forest clearance is 9,002.
All these figures are taken from applications for forest clearance or for permission under the Goa Protection of Trees Act, 1984 available under RTI and from the website of Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
“In addition to the above, the Tamnar Project has sought the approval of the Goa government to short circuit its applications for 22,140 trees to be felled in private properties by excluding the trees from the purview of the Goa Protection of Trees Act, 1984. The permission has since been granted by the Chief Minister himself,” he said.
Alvares further informed that the MoEF&CC has permitted the loss of these trees to be compensated by growing trees in Karnataka and the Goa government is paying the Karnataka government the money to raise “compensatory afforestation” in several districts of Karnataka.
