In a great move towards forest conservation, a Supreme Court panel on forest and wildlife shelved a Mega Rail plan drawn up by the Railways and Karnataka Government. The Rs 2,315-crore Hubli-Ankola railway line project involved the construction of 329 bridges and 29 tunnels, and would have required the felling of more than 2.5 lakh trees on 965 hectares of forest land.
After 13 years in the pipeline, the venture was finally stopped due to a report that said the project's “huge and irreparable" ecological impact would “far outweigh" its “actual tangible benefits". Though the foundation stone was laid by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000, an observation by forest officials in 2002 turned the fate of the development. They pointed out that the line would not serve any national interest, and the loss of such pristine ecosystems for a mining spot, that may be depleted in 20 years, was pointless.
Though the Railway Ministry pushed for the project with all its strength, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Environment Ministry and two NGOs were determined to stop any further development in the plan. To convince conservationists, the Railways even reduced forest land requirement by 300 hectares (from 965 hectares to 687 hectares).
Dismissing the reduction in forest-land requirement, the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) said that “no amount of mitigation measures would be adequate to contain the severe adverse impact on the biodiversity-rich dense forest of Western Ghats." And thus, a long fought war between irrational development and biodiversity was won by the latter.
Source: The Indian Express.
