Non-official members of National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) have sought environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan's clarification regarding defence ministry's move to get a bill exempting all infrastructure projects from forest and wildlife provisions.
Strategic infrastructure projects in forest areas need ministry's approval. Forest clearance and wildlife approval is necessary if the project area has any endangered species. The time taken in the approval process is lengthy as many times field inspections are conducted to understand the likely impact on forests and wildlife.
Because of this, the defence ministry believes key road and other infrastructure projects are getting delayed, thereby giving China the advantage, along the border. China's road infrastructure has almost reached Indian borders in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh region in Jammu and Kashmir, where as the same is not true for India.
To overcome the delay, the defence ministry is considering legislation to allow it freedom from forest and wildlife provisions within 50 kms of the border. The proposed bill is at a nascent stage, a government official said. Read the full report here.
Source: Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times, New Delhi.
