Trees to be planted in Haryana’s Aravallis to make up for forest loss in Nicobar due to infra projects
The loss of forests in Great Nicobar Island on the Bay of Bengal will be compensated by afforestation in Haryana’s Aravallis, officials of the environment ministry have said. The Aravallis is over 2,400 km away in a different ecological zone from Great Nicobar, but rules allow for such remote compensatory afforestation.
Major infrastructure projects have been planned in the ecologically fragile Great Nicobar. The Centre on November 11 granted environmental clearance to an International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT), a 450 MVA gas and solar power plant, an airport and associated townships over 166.1 sq km in Great Nicobar Island, according to documents seen by HT.
The project will involve diversion of around 130.75 sq km of forest land in three phases. The total land area of Great Nicobar Island is 910.074 sq km and around 15% of forest area will be diverted for the projects.
The total area required for the proposed project is 166.1 sq km, according to the clearance letter issued by the Union environment ministry.
“The project proponent (M/s Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation Ltd) has proposed to conduct the compensatory afforestation of the project in the Haryana Aravallis. They have had meetings with Haryana government already for plantations over Aravalli region in an area of around 260 sq km,” a ministry official said, seeking anonymity.
“This may be very beneficial for control air pollution in the national capital region. If more land is needed, then afforestation will be taken up in Madhya Pradesh also, in addition to Haryana,” he added.
Haryana has a forest cover of only 3.63%, according to the Forest Survey of India.
The Great Nicobar Island proposal was considered in multiple Expert Appraisal Committee meetings since March. Terms of Reference for the project was granted on May 25, 2021 according to the ministry letter to project developer.
The EAC had raised concerns about the environmental impact of the project, according to the minutes of the panel’s meeting dated April 5 and 6 available on the Parivesh website.
“The Committee notes that the site selection for the port component has been done keeping primarily the technical and financial viability in place. The environmental aspects were not given much weightage while selecting the site. The Island has a large number of endangered species, including Leatherback Turtle...” the minutes said.
The summary of the project on the Parivesh website states the port will allow Great Nicobar “to participate in the regional and global maritime economy by becoming a major player in cargo transhipment. The proposed airport will support both the maritime sector and the tourism sector, which will attract international and national tourists...” The total project is worth ₹75,000 crore.
AECOM India, a Gurugrambased consultant, had prepared the pre-feasibility report for Niti Aayog, as per documents on Parivesh portal. The report said four interlinked projects will add considerable socio-economic value at a relatively low social and environmental cost.
“As per forest norms, compensatory afforestation may not be carried out in states with over 75% forest cover. They should be carried out where forest area is less. Andaman and Nicobar has over 82% forest cover... Haryana has very low forest cover so it has been selected,” another senior official of the forest conservation division said.
On May 22, 2019, the environment ministry had issued guidelines stating that states and UTs having forest land of more than 75% irrespective of the total geographical area shall not be insisted on providing non-forest land equal to the forest area diverted. Compensatory afforestation can be taken up in any other state or UT having deficient forest land.
“Offsetting the loss of forests across ecologies or geographies has been legitimized by the design of India’s compensatory afforestation mechanism,” said Kanchi Kohli, legal researcher at Centre for Policy Research.