NGT

NAINITAL: In a setback to the Uttarakhand government’s ambitious Kandi Road project which aims to connect Garhwal with Kumaon, the National Green Tribunal ( NGT ) has banned construction of the proposed road that would pass through the core area of Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR). The 90 km long road was expected to reduce the distance between Ramnagar in Nainital and Kotdwar in Pauri Garhwal by 88 kilometres and reduce journey time by two hours. A 50 km stretch of the road was to pass through the protected forest.

The tribunal on Monday ordered the state government to construct the road as per the initial plan approved by the Supreme Court in 2005. The apex court had approved a map of a road connecting the Garhwal and Kumaon regions which was jointly prepared by the state governments of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Union ministry of forests, environment and climate change (MoEF). The plan did not include the road passing through Corbett.

The NGT was hearing a petition filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, claiming that the project violated Supreme Court’s orders as well as the Wildlife Act. “The tribunal’s order is historic as it has saved the ecology, biodiversity and wildlife of CTR,” said Bansal.

The Trivendra Singh Rawat government soon after assuming power in 2017 had announced that the road would be constructed from Kotdwar to Ramnagar and pass through the core area of the CTR. The government had also approved funds of Rs 3.14 crore for a study by the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, regarding the project.

However, the Union ministry of environment and forests, the National Board for Wildlife and the National Tiger Conservation Authority in an affidavit to the NGT raised objection to the proposed road citing threat to tiger population in the reserve. In its affidavit to the green tribunal, MoEF had said, “The tiger population at Corbett Tiger Reserve is important for maintaining the viability of the entire Terai landscape and disrupting it through large-scale construction as ostensibly envisaged in the project, shall jeopardize one of the few viable tiger populations in the country.” Notably, as per the the latest census, the Corbett Tiger Reserve has a population of 215 tigers.

MoEF had further said that since Corbett was a national park, as per section 83 V (4) (i) of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, such areas “are required to be kept as inviolate for the purposes of tiger conservation.”

