Bengal e-way to impact protected forest land

THe unification surroundings ministry’s expert estimate citizens committee (EAC) has cleared a 235-km greenfield state highway connecting Varanasi to Kolkata under the Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-II programme, with the project requiring the diversion of over 103 hectares of reserved and protected forest land in West Bengal — territory the committee noted falls partially within a tiger landscape.The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) project, a four-to-six lane access-controlled corridor estimated at ₹9,250 crore, was taken up at the EAC’s 444th meeting on April 23 and 24. As a Category A project under the Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2006, it required mandatory environmental clearance given its scale and likely ecological impact.The alignment traverses the districts of Purulia, Bankura, Pashchim Mednipur, Hoogli and Howrah in West Bengal. Of the 103.8593 hectares of forest land to be diverted, 62.8 hectares fall across the Purulia, Kangsabati, Bankura South and Panchet forest divisions, and the remaining 41 hectares under the Rupnarayan forest division. The project also requires 1,522 hectares of private agricultural and barren land and 673 hectares of government land.The study area is home to 17 Schedule-I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, among them the Indian elephant, leopard, Indian pangolin, striped hyena and cobra. The Jangal Mahal Elephant Corridor lies 7.75 km to the south of the project alignment, raising the potential for wildlife incursion.To manage wildlife movement, NHAI has proposed 20 elephant-cum-wildlife underpasses. The committee cleared these in principle but imposed a firm condition: no underpass may be built to a span shorter than 300 metres, in line with recommendations from the divisional forest officer (DFO).The EAC minutes record that the committee “stressed” that wildlife crossing structures “shall be strictly as per recommendations of the DFO.”NHAI, which designed the alignment in consultation with the state forest department, had incorporated this requirement into its application.The committee flagged a broader concern in its clearance note. “The project area forms part of a tiger landscape,” the minutes state, directing that the environment management plan incorporate site-specific wildlife conservation strategies and adequate budgetary provisions to minimise impacts on faunal movement and habitat integrity. The expressway will cross more than a dozen water bodies, including the Rupnarayan river, the Mundeshwari river and the Damodar, as well as several smaller rivers and branch canals running through the West Bengal plains.“The Jongol Mahal region already sees significantly high instances of negative interactions between humans and elephants often leading to casualties and losses on both sides. Shrinking of habitats further aggravates the problem as it forces elephants into human habitation thereby forcing them to share common spaces with people,” said Meghna Banerjee, Co Founder Human & Environment Alliance League (HEAL).“In this context, any new linear projects entailing diversion of any forest land, especially near elephant corridors will only exacerbate the conflict further. Therefore, clearances for any such projects in these sensitive areas must be examined with these specific considerations in mind,” she added.