The meeting of the Telangana State Board for Wild Life on Tuesday cleared three proposals for wild life clearances for laying of underground lines, and discussed one proposal for clearance required for irrigation project.
Objections were raised by Board members that they were meeting only for clearance of forest lands for various projects rather than clearing wildlife protection and conservation measures. They referred to pendency of proposed Vulture Sanctuary and extension of core area in Asifabad district. Minister for Forests Jogu Ramanna promised that a meeting would be called exclusively to discuss these and other wildlife issues such as village relocation, tiger conservation, and improvement of protection.
LI scheme
The Board accepted a proposal for diversion of 3.1346 ha of Forest land for Nellikal Lift Irrigation scheme in Nellikal Reserve Forest falling in Wild Life Management Division of Nagarjunasagar in Amrabad Tiger Reserve.
Other proposals cleared were for diversion of 1.6345 hectares and 0.508 hectares of forest land in two separate instances of laying of optical fiber cable lines in Eturnagaram forest division in Jayashankar-Bhupalpalli District, respectively by Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited. They were accepted on the condition that funds would be provided for implementation of mitigation plan.
Field visit
The proposal for diversion of almost 443 hectares of forest and non-forest land from eco-sensitive zone of Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary in Manuguru and Paloncha Wild Life Management divisions for Sita Rama Lift Irrigation project came up for discussion. It was decided to conduct a field visit on December 26 for the Board members, before a decision was taken.
The proposed project passes through an extent of 72.8788 hectares in forest area and 112.9649 hectares in non-forest areas of Paloncha, and 202.5612 hectares in forest area and 54.5542 hectares in non-forest areas of Manuguru Division.
The proposals were recommended by concerned forest division officers and Conservator of Forests, Kothagudem, subject to implementation of mitigation plan to offset the impact of the proposed project on the wildlife of the area.
The Chief Wildlife Warden recommended the proposal subject to implementation of Wildlife mitigation action plan with funds to be provided by the user agency. The mitigation plan is proposed to be implemented in Paloncha at a cost of ₹1.23 crore and in Manuguru at a cost of ₹1.18 crore.
Another proposal for two bridges in Kagaznagar was cleared, but vociferous objections were raised by members over such diversions without formal permission.
