Seen in this light, the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the West Bengal government and the Sahara Group of Companies in October 2002 to undertake a Rs. 700 crore five-star mega tourism project in the Sundarbans is cause for alarm. The 'Integrated Sahara Tourism Circuit' (ISTC) project is believed to require 750 acres of land at Sagar Island, Fraserganj, L-Plot, Kaikhali and other islands in the South 24 Parganas district. What has raised further alarm among NGOs and even Ministry of Environment officials is the promise of the state government to hand over the land to Sahara by March 2003 "with statutory approvals like marine, environment and forest".
The state government has no authority to make such promises, as the project will need to be examined by the central government and its advisory committees, including the Indian Board for Wildlife. The fear is that rules will be bent because of political influence being exercised (the MoU was signed in the presence of the Chief Minister!). Two committees have been set up for the project - a cabinet sub-committee headed by the Chief Minister for supervision and a high-level committee of senior officials headed by the Chief Secretary for monitoring.
The project will involve the construction of 'floatels', a helipad for 'emergency evacuations', excursions to interior creeks and channels in motorboats and the development of a huge network of waterways. Hovercraft will be used to transport passengers from Kolkata. Hitherto undisturbed creeks and inlets will be invaded by noisy, polluting boats. This will disrupt the breeding biology of fragile mangrove species. It stands to reason also that the habitat's nocturnal ecology will be disrupted by floodlights. The mere existence of hotels and floatels will be a severe disturbance and the corresponding increase in human activity will only make matters worse. Unsubstantiated reports also talk of establishing a glorified zoo so that tigers can be viewed in the mangrove habitat. This would, of course, be a gross violation of CRZ Rules as the entire Sundarbans falls in the CRZ I category.
Readers can write a letter opposing this five-star mega tourism project which seeks to put profit before ecological sustainability.
