Vehicle asked from SAIL for its Odisha mining site inspection is minister Prakash Javadekar's luxury ride in Delhi

The Indian Express, 22 December, 2015

In February this year, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, while granting forest clearance to Steel Authority of India Ltd’s Barsua iron mines in Odisha, asked the public sector undertaking for a vehicle that the Ministry’s Bhubaneswar staff could use for field inspections.

Official records show that within four months, SAIL bought a Rs 20-lakh Toyota Fortuner for the Ministry. But this SUV was not sent to the field office. It was delivered in New Delhi where it was being used, until recently, by Minister Prakash Javadekar.

It is not unusual for the Ministry’s regional offices or state forest departments to ask for vehicles from project proponents for site inspection. SAIL’s Barsua iron mines itself has delivered six vehicles (five Boleros and a Scorpio) to the Odisha forest department since 2011. But never before had it supplied a high-end SUV like the Fortuner and, that too, to New Delhi rather than the field office.

The Indian Express contacted H Bara who was General Manager of Barsua mines when the Fortuner was purchased but is now retired.
“As per the forest clearance condition, the proposal for the SUV sought from SAIL for Odisha mine inspection used by Javadekar in Delhi
car was sent to our E&L (Environment and Lease) division in the Kolkata headquarters,” Bara said.

Asked why a Fortuner had been chosen and why was it delivered to Delhi given that it was meant to be used in Barsua, Bara declined comment.

Beginning December 15, The Indian Express made several phone calls, sent email questionnaires and text messages to the Ministry and SAIL. Last Saturday, Minister Javadekar, in an email, said he was in Bangalore and had asked the Director General (Forest) to “cooperate” and reply on Monday. But there was no response.

For days, the Fortuner had a red beacon. And on December 16, a day after the questionnaire was sent, it was parked with other staff vehicles in the basement of the Ministry headquarters. The red beacon atop had been removed.

Records show that the Ministry’s clearance letter, dated February 10, 2015, did not specify any make or model of the car sought.
But barely a week later, SAIL’s Deputy General Manager (Liaison) wrote to the Ministry asking “by when a vehicle Toyota Fortuner model 4×2 MT, 3.0 litre white is to be delivered keeping in view, the conditions. (imposed) in the in-principle approval may take approximately two years to be complied with”.

On June 17, as per records, a Fortuner was purchased and delivered in Delhi. With licence plate DL3C CC 8068, it was registered on June 26 in the name of an Under Secretary in the General Administration Division of the Ministry and was used by Javadekar.

According to an August 2014 regulation of the Department of Expenditure under the Finance Ministry, a Minister can spend up to Rs 4.75 lakh on purchase of an official vehicle. Like his colleagues in the Cabinet, Javadekar has a Maruti SX4 (DL1 CQ 6208, bought in 2014) for official use.

When contacted, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Tejinder Singh, head of the Ministry’s Bhubaneswar regional office which was meant to use the car, said no vehicle had been received from SAIL. Asked about the Fortuner delivered to New Delhi, he declined comment.

Records show that on May 30, 2014 — barely days after this government was sworn in — the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Ministry recommended Stage-I clearance for SAIL’s Barsua mines, along with a series of penalties for alleged violation of the Forest Conservation Act. These included penal compensatory afforestation, disciplinary proceedings against officials and legal proceedings against SAIL.

Clearance could only be issued this February after the Supreme Court eased its stand on iron mining.

Incidentally, a car for inspections was not among the conditions set by the FAC when it recommended clearance. Records show that this condition was added in the clearance letter issued on February 10: “User agency (SAIL) will provide permanent vehicular mobility to the (Ministry’s) regional office, Bhubaneswar, for periodic monitoring of the project already existing and those coming up in the area.”

Neither S S Negi, Director General (Forest), nor H C Chaudhary, the Director who issued the forest clearance, responded to emails and messages asking how and why this condition was included. Under the rules, only the Minister has the authority to add to conditions set by the FAC.

Looking behind the numbers on India’s ‘stable’ forest cover

The Indian Express, 21 December, 2015

The first time the Forest Survey of India (FSI) measured the country’s forest cover was in 1987, using satellite data captured during 1981-83. Its latest biennial report released recently shows that India has gained 60,854 sq km of forests over the past three decades, 43,907 sq km having been added under the dense forest category.

In the last two years, while the gain in overall forest cover has been an impressive 3,775 sq km, our dense forests have shrunk by only 654 sq km. These figures were highlighted by the government to claim an overall stability in India’s forest cover.

Indeed, this is a remarkable feat considering the intense pressure on forest land for the agricultural, industrial and infrastructural needs of a rapidly growing population. But before celebrating the achievement, there is need to look behind the numbers.

The FSI uses satellite images to identify green cover, and does not discriminate between natural forests, plantations, thickets of weeds such as juliflora and lantana, and longstanding commercial crops such as palm, coconut, coffee or even sugarcane. In the 1980s, satellite imagery mapped forests at a 1:1 million scale, missing details of land units smaller than 4 sq km. Now, the refined 1:50,000 scale can scan patches as small as 1 hectare (100 metres x 100 metres), and any unit showing 10 per cent canopy density is considered forest. So millions of these tiny plots that earlier went unnoticed, now contribute to India’s official forest cover. This can throw up very interesting results. Take Delhi, for example. The first FSI report recorded only 15 sq km of forests in the capital. The latest report found 189 sq km — an over 12-fold increase in three decades. Nearly a third of this is recorded under the ‘dense’ category. So how come oxygen-starved Delhiites do not have a guide map to take a breather in these ‘forests’?

Similarly, the highly agricultural Punjab and Haryana have managed to add more than 1,000 sq km each of forests since the 1980s. Arid Rajasthan has gained as much as 30%. A third of Tamil Nadu’s forests are on private land that also has a fifth of the state’s dense forests.

Even as invasive weeds and commercial plantations masqueraded as ‘forests’ across the country, India kept losing its vital dense forest cover (canopy density of 40% or above). For example, dense forests have shrunk by 2,254 sq km in Gujarat, and by 1,887 sq km in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana since the first FSI report. 

What’s worse, the net loss, or gain, in dense forests does not show how much is actually being lost. A dense forest can deteriorate to open forest (10%-40% canopy density), or can be wiped out altogether to become non-forest. On the other hand, open forests can improve in density, and even non-forests can grow into open and, subsequently, dense forests over a length of time. Since 2003 (see chart), 9,513 sq km of India’s dense forests have been wiped out, and have become non-forest areas. What offsets this loss in the forest reports is the conversion of non-forest areas to dense forest every two years. Since 2003, a total of 4,809 sq km of non-forest have become dense forest. In the last two years alone, this has added 1,135 sq km under the best forest category. The secret: these are all fast-growing plantations — not detected by satellites in the early stages, but considered dense forests when they ultimately show up. Planting mixed native species is perhaps the best means to create new forests. But they cannot compensate, certainly not overnight, for the loss of old-growth natural forests. For three decades, our net dense forest cover has remained stable on paper. There is nothing in the FSI reports until 2005 to show how much of these prime forests were actually lost, and compensated for, by plantations. But the data in the last 10 years reveal that we are destroying around 1,000 sq km of dense forest every year, and compensating for nearly half of this with plantations. Depending on where one stands, one can be smug that we are losing only this much and not more, or worry that so much is being lost. Either way, this realisation — and not the jugglery of marginal net gains or losses — is the real takeaway from our forest reports. 

Forest Report: Behind net gain, 2,500 sq km of best forests wiped out in two years

The Indian Express, 6 Dec 2015

The Forest Survey of India’s biennial report released on Friday showcased how India has added 3,775 sq km to its green cover since 2013. It also reported an increase of 2,402 sq km in the very dense forest category that had remained static since 2007.

Behind these happy figures, the report recorded a loss of 2,511 sq km of very dense and mid-dense forests that have been completely wiped out, and become non-forest areas since 2013.

While an area of at least 1 hectare (0.01 sq km) with a canopy density of 10% is considered forest, prime forests are classified as very dense and mid-dense with canopy densities of at least 70% and 40% respectively.

Figures extrapolated from the 2015 report show that while 2,511 sq km of prime forests have disappeared altogether, 1,135 sq km of non-forest areas have become either very dense or mid-dense forests during that time.

But this can hardly offset the loss, because these new forests are mostly plantations or areas that were already forests, but had not been recorded until now.
“Yes, it is impossible for a non-forest area to become a dense forest in two years. Some of these are plantations that have grown enough to be identified in satellite images. And there were certain existing forest areas that were not clearly identifiable from the images earlier,” said Dr Anmol Kumar, director general, Forest Survey of India.

Even accounting for the non-forest areas now recorded as dense and mid-dense forests, the net loss of forests in these prime categories works out to be 1,376 sq km — more than twice the area of Mumbai — in two years. The states of J&K, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Manipur, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands took major hits.

On the other hand, the overall gain of 2,402 sq km of very dense forests since 2013 is largely due to positive results from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The archipelago has gained a remarkable 1,932 sq km of very dense forests, putting 5,686 sq km — or 84% — of its entire forest cover of 6,751 sq km under the top category. Uttar Pradesh added 572 sq km of very dense forest — a jump of 35% since 2013. Tamil Nadu reported a net gain of 100 sq km of very dense forest.

“We have planted a lot of mangroves since the tsunami. Under the forest improvement scheme, we also do regular plantations in the gap areas inside mid-density forests. And timber extraction was reduced to one-eighth of the one lakh tonne quota in 2002. All these efforts are now showing results,” said Omkar Singh, principal chief conservator of forests, A&N Islands.

Asked if the report’s emphasis on net gain is deceptive since it over-compensates the loss of prime forests with plantations, Dr Kumar underlined the “overall stability” of the country’s forest cover.

“What is wrong with plantations? Other than old root stocks coming up, that is the only way forests can be created. Private commercial monoculture plantations are there but the (forest) department plants only mixed native species. The net gain, however small, indicates we have stability,” he said.

Loss Of Prime Forests (2013-2015)*

Very dense forest to non-forest 257

Non-forest to very dense forest 157

Net loss of very dense forest 100

Mid-dense to non-forest 2,254

Non-forest to mid-dense forest 978

Net loss of mid-dense forest 1,276

Total loss of prime forest 1,376

*In sq km

The real outrage

The Indian Express, 4 Dec 2015

When the decibel is deafening, silence can be a survival instinct. Besides, there is no debate to join or win. One can’t argue against incantations meant to rouse lynch mob soundalikes. Yet, the absurdity screaming at us demands a response, if only for the record.

The whining intellectuals, we are told, are hypocrites because they consider incidents such as the Dadri lynching as signs of growing intolerance but not the killing of an army officer by terrorists in Kashmir. Aamir Khan was asked the question by a member of the audience during the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism awards evening, and thousands of times on social media thereafter.

From the stage, Aamir replied that all acts of violence should be condemned. Modest of him to not point out that the question was outright meaningless. Terrorists did not kill that particular soldier because he offended them. They killed him like they kill many other soldiers and civilians of all faiths because that is what terrorists do.

Calling terrorism a form of intolerance, however extreme, stretches the limits of euphemism. So when we compare the two killings, do we imply that the Dadri villagers acted like terrorists? That acute intolerance made a bunch of regular people find an excuse to take out a neighbour of a different faith? Much like terrorists seeking opportunities to target anyone on the other side?

Besides, the outrage over the murders of Mohammad Akhlaq, Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi is primarily against a section of political leadership busy playing down the incidents and a government lax in punishing the culprits. Likewise, the country would have erupted in anger had the establishment come across as soft on terror. Or, do the Hindutva apologists demanding parity in outrage believe that is actually the case?

Then, those harangues over selective protest. What happened in Delhi in 1984 or in Mumbai in 1992-93 or in Gujarat in 2002 deserved every bit of outrage that India in 2015 is drawing. A number of those outraged today might well have had incentives for acting far less sensitively on earlier occasions. But to claim that everyone protesting now is beholden to some political camp is to testify for the very intolerance charge they seek to dismiss.

In a long-cynical world, our reaction to almost anything depends on the scale, proximity and immediacy of it. In a decidedly corrupt country, it took the scale of a Bofors scandal to bring a government down. In a society scarred by daylight rapes doled out as punishment, we took to the streets only when one of us was brutally raped in the busy evening hours in the capital.

Unfortunate though it is, we are tempted to rationalise killings during a riot as an aberration — perpetrated by faceless mobs and possible only in such a lawless frenzy. These things, we tend to believe, can’t happen to us in our kinds of neighbourhoods, certainly not in normal times.

The killers in Dadri did not require any riot. The murderers of Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi did not have to hide behind any lynch mob. They hit brazenly and with an apparent sense of impunity. The victims are defenceless elderly citizens who had probably never felt so physically vulnerable for their views, scholarship or household menu. That is the difference in 2015.

Aamir’s recollection of a family conversation was as rhetorical as his wife wondering if they would have to leave the country. He could well have made his point without offering that anecdote. But even the tolerant verdict, that he should have weighed every word lest he provoked many and made some feel insecure, is a comment more on us and our bizarre times than on Aamir himself. Today, anguish over violence shames India way more than violence does.

Kerala raises alarm on ivory massacre, Tamil Nadu in denial

Yet to register cases after ivory hunters nabbed by Kerala confess to killing dozens

The Indian Express, 21 Nov, 2015

Tuskers in the Western Ghats forests are facing the biggest threat since Veerappan’s men almost permanently changed the elephant sex ratio two decades ago. Ivory hunters arrested by the Kerala forest department have confessed to mass poaching of elephants — 33 confirmed killings and an estimated toll of 80-100 in the last 18 months — in the state and the adjoining forests of Tamil Nadu. While the gangs are still active, the Tamil Nadu forest department is yet to initiate action or even accept that any elephant was poached in the state.

Five smugglers and poachers arrested by the Kerala FD and the anti-Naxal division of Tamil Nadu police last month admitted that their gang killed at least 15 elephants in Tamil Nadu’s Ooty, Coimbatore and Meghmalai forests and traded more than 200 kg of ivory in the last 18 months. At least another two gangs are believed to be operating in the forests of Tamil Nadu and together took out an estimated 35-45 elephants in that period. Kerala also took a severe blow with 18 confirmed poaching and an estimated loss of 45-55 elephants.

It is a shocking toll compared even to the two dark decades (1975-1995) when up to 2000 elephants, mostly tuskers, were poached in the southern forests. The populations and the sex ratio recovered since with more than 6000 elephants now in Kerala and about 4000 in Tamil Nadu.

On October 17, the deputy director of Kerala’s Periyar Tiger reserve wrote to forest bosses in Ooty North, Meghmalai and Sathyamangalam and Anamalai tiger reserves, sharing details of the poachers’ confessions and requesting them to register cases for follow-up action. A month later, the Tamil Nadu forest department is yet to respond or join the probe. 

“We wrote to them (Tamil Nadu officials) last month. They have not replied. I am not sure if they took any action,” said John Mathew, deputy director, Periyar East division. For the record, Meghmalai registered the only elephant poaching case in Tamil Nadu last week, only after all the accused got conditional bail in Kerala.

“I understand the gravity of the situation and registered a case on November 9. Kerala’s Periyar forests are adjacent to Meghmalai and the staff are coordinating. I cannot comment on why the other affected divisions (in Tamil Nadu) are not interested in registering cases,” said Kaja Moitheen, range officer, Meghmalai. Dr VK Melkani, Tamil Nadu’s chief wildlife warden did not respond to repeated phone calls and text messages.

“We are trying our best to prevent further damage. Karnataka is also probing the recent elephant killings in the state. But Tamil Nadu officials are not even accepting that their elephants are being poached. We don’t want an inter-state controversy but they should obtain provisional warrants, take custody of all the accused and take them to recover remains of recently poached elephants — like we found eight carcasses in Kerala — as evidence to strengthen the cases,” said a senior forest official in Trivandrum.

Since 2012, Kerala has seized more than 100kg of ivory, indicating an upsurge in the trade. This May, forest officials were tipped off by a gang member about rampant elephant poaching in the region. Having made more than two dozen arrests in the state since July, the Kerala officials followed leads to make four arrests — middleman Babu, and poachers Nagoya, Singam and Kubendran — from Theni in Tamil Nadu last month. In all, 25 muzzle-loading guns custom-made for big game were seized.

The poachers confessed to hunting at least 15 elephants in the forests of Kothagiri (Ooty), Kallar (Manampally range of Anamalai tiger reserve), Bhavani (Sathyamangalam tiger reserve) and Kadamalai Kundu (Meghmalai). Among two other gangs in operation in the Tamil Nadu forests, they said, the more prolific is the one led by Vanaraja. Tamil Nadu forest staff from the affected areas visited Kerala and were briefed about the interrogation. Soon after, the Kerala investigating team wrote to them.

Earlier, one of the leads brought the Kerala FD to Delhi where, along with Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and Delhi Police, it arrested ivory trader Umesh Aggrawal on October 2 and seized 487 kgs of ivory in an undercover operation on October 10.

A new sport in Rajasthan: Shoot and save the nilgai

The Indian Express, 11 November, 2015

Aspiring marksmen will soon be able to stalk, chase and shoot big game in the wild — all for conservation. As a desperate population control measure, Rajasthan has decided to “develop a sport” to sterilise nilgais using contraceptive darts. The state now plans to welcome enthusiasts to try their hand. 
As reported by The Indian Express on December 20, 2014, the Vasundhara Raje government has been wary of culling nilgais to prevent destruction of crops. Instead, it has chosen to inject the animals with immuno-contraceptive vaccines using non-lethal darts. A pilot project will be launched soon and legal clearance for public participation will be sought thereafter.
The “sport” will require marksmen to sneak up on nilgais, aim for the rump and shoot a marker dart. Every bull’s eye will inject the vaccine and leave a splotch of colour on the coat, marking the animal as sterilised. It will be a long shot to cover the state’s 55,000-strong nilgai population. 
“These are shy animals that scoot at the sight of people from as far as 50 metres. So it will be difficult to get them within range and aim accurately. Given the number of nilgais, a decision was taken in the last state wildlife board meeting (on October 17) to involve the public and promote it as a sport,” said a senior forest official present at the meeting. 

The state is considering two options — GonaCon or Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) — for the immuno-contraceptive. GonaCon stimulates production of antibodies that bind to gonadotropin and reduce the release of sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone). PZP, on the other hand, produces antibodies that attach to the sperm receptors on eggs in the female, blocking fertilisation. 
While PZP has to be injected every year, GonaCon is a multi-year vaccine and has been used on white-tailed deer, California ground squirrels, prairie dogs, wild horses and elk. Rajasthan is in talks with the US Department of Agriculture to make the vaccine available. GonaCon works on both sexes but only females are darted to check the population more effectively. 
As for managing the existing population, the government seems to have thrown in the towel. “If this drive works, we’ll count on natural mortality to bring the numbers down,” said an official in the forest department headquarters in Jaipur.

Cement firms up against 2% of project cost for wildlife funds; Centre relaxes policy

The India Express, 3 Nov, 2015

In a policy revision that is likely to benefit companies seeking to expand existing projects close to national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, the Centre has eased the burden of shelling out at least 2 per cent of the project cost for impact mitigation and conservation.

According to an advisory issued by the environment ministry on October 28, developers will spend 2 per cent of the project cost or the actual cost of project-specific impact mitigation and conservation measures, whichever is less. Till now, user agencies paid 2 per cent of project cost or the actual impact mitigation cost, whichever was more.

The decision follows representations from Jaypee Himachal Cement Plant and Ambuja Cement that challenged the National Board of Wildlife’s (NBWL) decision to charge 2 per cent of their project cost for impact mitigation as a condition for wildlife clearance in August 2014. Together, the two companies were to deposit approximately Rs 70 crore.

Jaypee contended that the company had already paid the Himachal forest department Rs 54.12 lakh for wildlife management in compliance of environmental clearance conditions and sought relief from shelling out 2 per cent of its project cost of Rs 1500 crore. Similarly, Ambuja Cement said that it had already paid Rs 1.55 crore for wildlife management in lieu of the forest clearance for its Rs 2,000-crore project. 

The NBWL took up the issue this June and set up a five-member committee to work out policy recommendations. The panel’s report were discussed and accepted in the August meeting of the NBWL. Subsequently, the ministry modified its mitigation funding policy on October 28, a week ahead of the next NBWL meeting. 

“Normally, the projects for expansion or capacity augmentation or plant optimisation have less incremental impact on flora and fauna and their habitat compared to new project of the same nature and size. In such case therefore, the agency would pay 2 per cent of the project cost or cost of Impact Mitigation and Wildlife Conservation Plan for 10 years, whichever less,” said the advisory issued by the environment ministry. 

For new projects, developers will continue to pay 2 per cent of the project cost or cost of the actual mitigation plan, whichever more. In case of linear projects such as roads and canals, the advisory clarified that proportional cost of the project within the regulated zone will be taken into consideration for calculating the 2 per cent amount. This will benefit agencies such as National Highway Authority of India which has repeatedly rejected mitigation plans as too costly in the recent past. 

According to sources, both the Union ministry and the state forest department were under pressure to ease the financial burden on affected companies. In the June meeting of the NBWL, then Himachal chief wildlife warden JS Walia insisted that the 2 per cent of the project expenditure for wildlife management was “a small cost when considered against the colossal damage caused by the unit to the wildlife sanctuary.” He was the senior-most officer in the state department when the post of the head of forest fell vacant in July. Walia retired in August as CWLW.

Why NH7 widening project near Pench is stuck for 8 years

A legal battle over four-laning the Seoni-Nagpur stretch of NH7 through the Kanha-Pench tiger corridor has pitted the NGT against Bombay HC over jurisdiction. The Supreme Court hears the dispute today. JM recalls a bizarre logjam in one of India's key growth-versus-green debates

The Indian Express, 3 Nov, 2015

Year 2008. As its proposal for four-laning of NH7 between Seoni (Madhya Pradesh) and Nagpur (Maharashtra) faced scrutiny, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) told a Supreme Court panel that it was ready to build a 9.3-km flyover over the Pench tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh so that wildlife movements are not disturbed.

Year 2014. Once the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) had cleared the MP stretch of the project, NHAI said it could afford only a 1-km flyover. By 2015, the plan had been further downsized to building just a few ecoducts (landscaping above the carriageway for wildlife movement) of unspecified length.

For the Maharashtra stretch, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in 2012 proposed 5.56 km of underpasses. This February, Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said 3-4 underpasses of 50 m each would suffice.

The total proposed reduction, therefore, was 92% — from 14.86 km of road length to less than 1.2 km — in the mitigation plan. The numbers sum up the growth-versus-green debate playing out in one of India’s most bizarre logjams in project implementation.

Tiger Way or Highway

The NHAI’s initial proposal to build a 9.3-km flyover was rejected by the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC), which in 2009 backed the recommendation of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for an alternative alignment through Chhindwara by widening and upgrading existing state

NHAI refused to accept the plan, which involved a detour of around 70 km. As the deadlock continued, the NHAI reduced the forest land requirement in a fresh proposal in 2012. In its review, the WII proposed a series of flyovers adding up to 11.86 km — 6.3 km in MP and 5.56 km in Maharashtra — and of at least 7 m height. NHAI rejected the report, saying the flyovers would double the project cost.

The WII report also evaluated the proposed wildlife passageways for their openness index — calculated by height and distance (length and width) — which determines animals of what size may venture in. Of the 10 underpasses proposed in Maharashtra, only three were open enough for Indian bisons, and five for cheetals.

Even though Maharashtra accepted the 2012 WII report, it appointed, in January 2015, a new committee with members from the NHAI and the WII. This panel reduced the number of flyovers to 9, and their total length to 2.70 km. It also lowered the height to just 4.5 m, making 7 of the 9 structures unsuitable for large mammals. The NHAI said the cost was still too high.

Tribunal versus High Court

Following orders of the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court, which took suo motu cognisance of media reports on the poor condition of roads, a panel comprising Gadkari, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis proposed 3-4 50-m underpasses in the Maharashtra stretch of the project. The proposal outraged conservationists, as none of these tunnel-like structures could be of any use to large animals.

Under pressure, the government appointed yet another panel with experts from the WII and NTCA. Following a rapid two-week survey, this panel submitted its report in May. It proposed 9 underpasses, but cut their cumulative length from 2.70 km to 2.20 km, and set the height at 5 m. Which meant that 6 of the proposed structures could not be used by any mammal larger than the cheetal.

The NHAI remained reluctant, as implementing the proposed measures would require Rs 98 cr over and above its mitigation budget of Rs 122 cr. At the NBWL meeting this August, however, the agency agreed to construct all 9 structures.

Meanwhile, the National Green Tribunal stayed work on the project pending final forest clearance — and pulled up the Environment Ministry for exempting the project from NBWL clearance. In Nagpur, the HC issued a series of orders for prompt implementation of the stalled project. The two courts kept passing contradictory orders until the HC overruled the NGT over jurisdiction this September.

Growth versus Green

After Maharashtra notified the final forest clearance in September, NGO Conservation Action Trust (CAT) challenged it at NGT. CAT also filed a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court in October, seeking a resolution of the conflict between the NGT and the HC over jurisdiction. The apex court will hear the case today.

Four years ago, the Supreme Court had ordered that NHAI’s fresh proposals for widening NH7 “should be considered on merit” alone. It will now decide whether the NGT can examine the merit of the summary rejection of the alternative alignment, if petty bickering is worth stalling projects of national importance, and if a few hundred crores is unreasonable expenditure when it comes to securing one of India’s finest clusters of contiguous forests.

LONG, TWISTY ROAD

2008: Wildlife Trust of India approaches SC’s CEC against project
2009: CEC recommends realignment of NH7 via Chhindwara. NHAI rejects report
2011: After hearings in SC, MoEF asks NHAI to revise proposal
2012: NHAI reduces forest land requirement. WII proposes mitigation plan; NHAI rejects
2013: Nagpur Bench of Bombay HC gets involved
2014: MoEF exempts project from obtaining NBWL nod; grants Stage I forest clearance. Project’s MP stretch gets NBWL nod
2015: In Jan, second MoEF circular exempts linear projects from NBWL clearance. 

> In Feb, MoEF circulars challenged before NGT, which stays tree felling. But HC directs state to allow tree felling by Feb 28. 

> In May, NGT stays tree-felling permission granted by Maharashtra. 

> In Aug, NGT asks MoEF how project was exempted from NBWL clearance, seeks assurance that no trees will be cut till next hearing. 

Caught between two courts, Maharashtra exempts NH7 from NGT guidelines. 

> In Sep, after Maharashtra allows NHAI to resume felling trees, NGT threatens to initiate contempt proceedings. HC stays NGT order over jurisdiction rights. 

> In Oct, NGT adjourns hearing on appeal against final forest clearance. 

NGO moves SC to resolve jurisdiction issue

Rajasthan pulls a Gujarat on Gujarat: No bustard eggs

The Indian Express, 29 October, 2015

Two years ago, the Supreme Court ordered Gujarat to relocate some of its Asiatic lions to Madhya Pradesh — it’s yet to do so. Now Gujarat finds itself at the wrong end of a similar tug-of-war among BJP-ruled states with Rajasthan refusing to send eggs of the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard (GIB) to Kutch for breeding. 
On October 17, sources said, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje instructed Rajasthan wildlife officials during a state wildlife board meeting that no GIB eggs were to be shared with Gujarat. Instead, the state forest department has been asked to request the Centre for a breeding and research centre for Rajasthan’s state bird near Jaisalmer in the Desert National Park (DNP), sources added. 
When contacted, Rajasthan’s chief wildlife warden R K Tyagi refused to comment on the issue. 

Pic: Ashok Chaudhary

The GIB habitat improvement and conservation breeding programme, to be implemented by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in collaboration with the Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra forest departments, proposes to collect eggs from the wild, transport these to Kutch to build a breeding population and subsequently release captive-bred birds. The Centre has sanctioned Rs 35 crore for five years under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) for the project. 
The GIB is critically endangered with less than 200 remaining in the wild, mostly in Rajasthan. In 2013, Rajasthan launched Project Bustard with limited success. The state is in the process of redrawing the DNP boundaries by excluding disturbed areas and adding less crowded pockets suitable for GIB conservation. 
“What is the rationale behind the proposal for sending eggs all the way to Kutch when 90 per cent of the birds are in one area in Rajasthan? Why has Gujarat lost almost all its GIBs if conservation efforts have been so efficient there? We need to get real or we are looking at extinction of the species in less than 10 years,” said renowned bird author Bikram Grewal, a member of the Rajasthan wildlife board. 
Noted ornithologist Dr Asad Rahmani, however, does not see any merit in Rajasthan’s “possessiveness”. “Kutch still has good grasslands which can be further protected with the introduction of GIBs. If Rajasthan is so keen, how did the bird disappear from so many areas in the Thar desert? There is pride in saving a species by collaboration, not in keeping it to oneself and doing little to protect it,” he said. 
WII scientist and the project leader Dr Y V Jhala said the location of the breeding centre should be based on scientific considerations. “Being close to the coast, the site chosen in Mandvi, Kutch, provides the ideal moisture, temperature and vegetation throughout the year to maximise egg laying in GIB. Jaisalmer might not be the optimal location for a breeding centre because it is too dry and hot to ensure productivity,” he said. 
Dr S K Khanduri, IG (wildlife), Ministry of Environment and Forests, remains hopeful. “The project requires an agreement between the three states and WII. We have not heard from Rajasthan yet, not in writing. All of us need to work together as time is running out for the GIB,” he said. 
According to the Centre’s breeding programme plan, once the eggs are transported from Rajasthan and a breeding population is established in Kutch, priority will be given to Rajasthan’s DNP areas for the release of captive-bred birds. In the next stage, conservation areas will be identified in Gujarat and Maharashtra for release while breeding centres will come up in Rajasthan as well. 
“We will collect eggs from the wild instead of catching a few birds because captured GIBs usually do not recover from the shock to breed in captivity. So we’ll hatch and rear them in captivity,” said an official involved in planning the project. “A few of our staff will train in Abu Dhabi where they have successfully bred hundreds of houbara bustards (in cages). Our focus is on rearing the birds in natural enclosures so that they have a better chance of survival in the wild after release,” the official said. 
A similar tussle between Gujarat and another BJP-ruled state Madhya Pradesh appeared to have resolved in April 2013 when the Supreme Court ordered relocation of a few lion prides from the Gir forest to the Kuno wildlife sanctuary to ensure that the endangered species is not confined to a single location. 
The Gujarat government filed a curative petition which was dismissed by the Supreme Court last August. Two Gujarat NGOs have moved court challenging the relocation order since.
According to official figures provided by the Gujarat government, the number of Asiatic lions rose to 523 in 2015 from 411 in 2010. 

Ahead of Paris, Delhi to get some climate action with DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio will be in Delhi, India this month to profile Sunita Narain of CSE for an untitled, yet-to-be-announced documentary film on climate change

The Indian Express, 14 October, 2015

In The Wolf of Wall Street, the 2013 dark comedy on money and power, Leonardo DiCaprio, as stock market rogue Jordan Belfort, tells us “Money makes you a better person. You can give generously to the church of your choice or the political party. You can save the ******* spotted owl with money”. 
Leonardo DiCaprio will be in Delhi this month, in eco-friendly clothing, to profile Sunita Narain of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) for an untitled, yet-to-be-announced documentary film on climate change that will “explore the crisis of our time in a way that has never been done before”. 
Having launched conservation projects in 40-odd countries through his foundation, the billionaire star and UN messenger of peace on climate change now asks, “how far into the future we may have ****ed ourselves already, and how much time we have to find solutions and put them in place before this whole ecosystem collapses”. 
With The Revenant, a pre-Industrial Revolution period drama set in the wilderness of northern Canada ready for release in December, DiCaprio and crew are expected in Delhi on October 29 for four days. The government, say sources in the Ministry of External Affairs, has already cleared the application for filming. 
“Our focus will be Narain’s work establishing the principle of equity in the framework convention on climate change,” said New York-based Insurgent Media in its application — an argument that has been India’s refrain ahead of the Paris climate summit in November.
When contacted, an Insurgent Media official said over phone from New York that “the project is yet to be announced” and nobody was “authorised to confirm any details” at this stage. DiCaprio’s publicist is yet to respond. 
According to the application, Insurgent Media (of ‘Woody Allen: A Documentary’ fame) will make the film in association with Diamond Docs (The Cove) and Appian Way (The Wolf of Wall Street). Eight years after his The 11th Hour delved into the issue of climate change, brainstorming with the likes of Stephen Hawking and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, DiCaprio’s second feature-length documentary production builds “on unique tent pole moments of access, the kind only Leonardo DiCaprio can manage. Candid conversations with the people who move and shake this world, as well as the innovators trying to find solutions to fix our global climate crisis.” 
The actor, who started the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998 “with the mission of protecting the world’s last wild places”, has been funding and implementing a slew of conservation projects across the world — from saving key species like sharks, tigers and elephants to protecting indigenous tribes and communities. 
As recently as July, the foundation raised $40 million to save the environment, with bidders snapping up the actor’s Rolex and his Andy Warhol collection and a home on his Belize island besides private concerts with Elton John and Arctic expeditions with Prince Albert II of Monaco. 
Sunita Narain is away in Johannesburg. “I have been in touch with the film makers for the past year about their plans to make a film on climate change. They wanted me to particularly talk about our concerns about the need for ambition and equity in climate negotiations. They have just informed me that they will be in Delhi on 29 and 30th and will come over to CSE for a sit down interview,” she said.

Daily log of phone, toilet breaks part of Modi govt’s efficiency push

To streamline working of its employees, Centre plans 22 studies across ministries and institutions this year

The Indian Express, 27 September 2015

To rationalise employee strength and cut the government’s wage bill, the Staff Inspection Unit (SIU) under the Department of Expenditure in the Ministry of Finance will conduct at least 22 staffing studies in different ministries and institutions this year. 
Four studies are already underway — two in the ministries of Social Justice and Environment — where all officers and staff below the level of joint secretary have been asked to log their daily activities, minute by minute, including toilet breaks. 
“We have 20-22 studies on hand. While this is an ongoing exercise, it’s a jump from the five studies we did last year. The government is serious about justifying and streamlining manpower,” a source in the Department of Expenditure said.
This is the largest exercise by the SIU since it undertook 26 studies in 2003, before the first NDA government concluded its term. On an average, the SIU conducted 11 studies a year during the decade of the UPA rule. Also, while the UPA, in all its 10 years, saved the exchequer a total of Rs 265 crore through SIU, the NDA cut an expenditure of Rs 363 crore through five staff studies in 2014 alone. This year, the government is apparently aiming at higher cuts with its rigorous inspection process. 
The Sunday Express has reviewed the order issued in the environment ministry on August 28. During the two-week study period, it says, “daily log sheet has to be filled in separately for each day, reflecting activities of the day from the moment the officials enter the office and till he leaves the premises.” 
The activities include “phone calls, meetings, toilet, other personal time out, lunch, canteen visit etc” and the information submitted in the prescribed pro forma by each and every individual will be monitored by an SIU team on daily basis. Set up in 1964, the SIU recommends reduction of non-justifiable manpower in government offices and also decides on demands for creating new posts. 
The current drive, it is learnt, is specifically aimed at weeding out contractual staff hired to handle bulk of government work. The office of Annie George Mathew, joint secretary and in-charge of SIU in the Department of Expenditure, directed queries to officers in the unit by they declined to speak on record. Dr M M Kutty, additional secretary and in-charge of the staff inspection drive in the Environment ministry, did not take queries on the issue.

Govt looks at developing degraded forests as private concessions

The idea was first discussed between Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Global Investors Summit in Indore last year.

The Indian Express, 10 September, 2015

The Central Government is actively considering a proposal to amend the Wildlife Act and convert large tracts of degraded forests to private concessions meant for high-density tiger tourism. The plan is to invite investment for developing parcels of 20-50 sq km forestland as concessions under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model with fences, a safari road network covering at least 70 per cent of the area, and cameras at waterholes and artificially-built tiger dens for live streaming at restaurants inside such properties. 
The Environment Ministry is currently scrutinising the technological and legal aspects of the proposal, which was discussed at a high-level meeting in August.
“This is a policy matter. Yes, we had initial discussions but no final decision has been taken. Now the issue is with the division that deals with forest policy in the ministry,” said Vinod Ranjan, additional director general (wildlife). 
The idea was first discussed between Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Global Investors Summit in Indore last year. Subsequently, ‘private investment in forest and wildlife conservation’ was placed as the first item on a list of proposals sent by Chouhan to Modi on October 17. 
In his letter, Chouhan proposed that the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, be suitably amended to allow private investment, arguing that the time has come to free wildlife from the “absolute hold” of the state, which is constrained by financial limitations. 
The Environment Ministry then sought a concept note on the project from the Madhya Pradesh government, which was handed over early this year. 
The Indian Express has examined the concept note and other official documents related to the proposal (see box), which indicate that the Government is expected to share a part of the cost as Project Development Expenditure (PDE) and Viability Gap Funding (VGF), since trophy hunting — the mainstay of such concessions abroad — is not permitted in India.

The concept note, however, is silent on obtaining the consent of local communities under the Forest Rights Act. It states that 10-20 per cent of the forest area under each project can be “managed” to meet the community’s requirement of firewood and fodder. This should suffice as concessions will create jobs for locals and also reduce crop raiding, it suggests. 
The note claims that such concessions will rejuvenate degraded forests, lessen the tourism pressure on existing tiger reserves, serve as tiger corridors or buffer to adjoining sanctuaries, reduce crop damage, and create jobs for locals. 
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has defined a degraded forest as “a secondary forest that has lost, through human activities, the structure, function, species composition or productivity normally associated with a natural forest type expected on that site… and maintains only limited biological diversity”. 
Incidentally, the Finance Ministry had sent a letter to the states on December 11, 2014, backing private investment in zoos. It is now being argued within the government that such investment in forest land and wildlife management will be more helpful to conservation. 

First ever leopard census: India should not feel too smug too soon

The Indian Express, 7 September, 2015

The findings of India’s first ever leopard count have made happy headlines. The numbers, however, deserve closer scrutiny. 
The census put the total leopard population of the country at 12,000-14,-000. It did not, however, account for 12,000-14,000 leopards in the country. Neither did it survey the entire country. It was restricted to the tiger states, except West Bengal and the North-East states. Non-tiger states — such as Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana or Punjab — were not covered. Even within the tiger states, the census left out areas — north-west Rajasthan, for example — where chances of spotting tigers were remote. After all, these findings on leopards were an offshoot of the all-important tiger census. 
In fact, the happy range of 12-14,000 leopards for all of India in the national census is only a guess-estimate derived from a figure of 7,910 leopards present in and around tiger forests of 13 states. This figure of 7,910 itself is an extrapolation from 1,647 individual leopards that were actually photographed — some, multiple times — by camera traps set up to count tigers. 
The complex science of extrapolation used by the Wildlife Institute of India has never been adequately peer reviewed or even made fully public. While we should trust the researchers to arrive at an estimate of 7,910 — from 1,647 — for the entire sampled landscapes, it is anybody’s guess how the national range of 12,000-14,000 was derived since it includes vast, diverse landscapes that were not sampled at all. For all we know, the real leopard count could be significantly higher. 
Or lower. 
Take Uttarakhand, for example. The present ‘national census’ estimates 703 leopards in the tiger forests of the state. The state forest department consistently counted more than 2,000 leopards for the entire state in 2003, 2005 and 2008. Since the present census did not cover the high altitude non-tiger areas, we may smugly assume that more than double the number present in lower forests are lurking somewhere up there to make up for the 2008 count. 
Or should we keep our fingers crossed and wait for the next Uttarakhand census? 
Forget 12,000-14,000, is the number 7,910 itself reassuring? What it tells us is that for every tiger, there are approximately four leopards present in and around our tiger forests. However, according to the CBI’s wildlife crime cell, seizure reports indicate that for every tiger skin, at least seven leopard pelts are smuggled out. So what should we make of that? 

EXAMPLE UTTARAKHAND 
Leopard Count 
2003   2005   2008   Now 
2092     2105     2335     703* 
* Excluding high-altitude areas

Inform me of your meetings with minister Prakash Javadekar: MoeF Secretary to team

Ashok Lavasa's order also said the “subject matter of the meeting should be clearly mentioned” and “the agenda should be circulated well in advance”.

The Indian Express, 30 August, 2015

Signalling a turf war at the top in the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF), Secretary Ashok Lavasa has directed ministry officials that he be “informed immediately” about their meetings with Minister Prakash Javadekar, and the agenda “circulated well in advance”. 
The office of the Secretary issued an order on July 13 which stated that “while issuing notices for meetings/presentations chaired by the minister”, he “should be informed immediately about the meeting… a copy of the notice should be marked to the office of the Secretary”.
It also said the “subject matter of the meeting should be clearly mentioned” and “the agenda should be circulated well in advance”. 
This unusual direction, sources said, has only intensified speculation that all’s not well at the top in the ministry. Sources pointed out that there have been occasions when the Secretary, despite being present at Paryavaran Bhawan in Jor Bagh, has skipped “general internal meetings” called by the Minister. 
Sources said the Secretary reports directly to the Prime Minister’s Office, providing weekly briefs on the status of development projects pending clearance with the ministry. 
Neither Lavasa nor Javadekar responded to multiple emails and phone calls on what necessitated the order by the office of the Secretary. 

Supreme Court panel says no to mega rail link through Western Ghats

A joint venture between the Railways and the Karnataka government, the original project involved construction of 329 bridges and 29 tunnels, and required felling of more than 2.5 lakh trees on 965 hectares of forest land. 

The Indian Express, 23 August, 2015

The Rs 2,315-crore Hubli-Ankola railway line, cutting across the Western Ghats in Karnataka, has been shown the red signal by a Supreme Court panel on forest and wildlife, which said that the project’s “huge and irreparable” ecological impact would “far outweigh” its “actual tangible benefits”. 
Last August, Railways Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who is also a senior BJP leader from Karnataka, had claimed that he was in touch with Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on the issue and that the 168-km rail link project — conceived in 1998 primarily to transport iron ore from the Bellary-Hospet mines — would be cleared in a year. 
However, in its report submitted earlier this month, the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC) underlined that the net present value of the modified requirement of 727 hectares of forest land for the project works out to Rs 7,426 crore ? more than triple the project cost.

“These figures most effectively demonstrate the extraordinary high ecological and economic value of the forest land involved in the project,” it said, recommending that the apex court may direct the Environment Ministry not to reconsider or approve the project it had earlier rejected. 
MoEF officials refused to comment as the matter was sub-judice. 
A joint venture between the Railways and the Karnataka government, the original project involved construction of 329 bridges and 29 tunnels, and required felling of more than 2.5 lakh trees on 965 hectares of forest land. The proposal was rejected by the Environment Ministry in 2004 but revived with modifications in 2006. Pushing the rail link in 2008, the Karnataka government claimed it was “inevitable that the Western Ghats has to be pierced through at some point to ensure this connectivity between coastline and eastern plains of the state.” 
The CEC’s opinion follows a series of adverse reports the project has attracted since its foundation stone was laid by then prime minister A B Vajpayee in May 2000. In 2002, the Karnataka forest department observed that no national interest would be served by dissecting the forest landscape of Uttara Kannada with a new rail link when the potential of the existing alternatives such as Hubli-Vasco, Hospet-Chennai and Hospet-Vizag lines was yet to be tapped fully due to the low volume of iron ore traffic. It further reasoned that the deposit of Bellary-Hospet itself would not last beyond 20 years, making mining economically unviable. 
But by then, the Railways had already started work on the project in a non-forest stretch. In 2003, the then Karnataka forest chief reiterated that “the forest and terrain really do not permit a railway line” but the proposal “has to be considered in the light” of “more than one commitment” already made by the state government and the Railways Ministry. 
Submitting the proposal to the Union Environment Ministry, Karnataka’s then principal secretary (forest) acknowledged that the rail link “will further fragment the forest and expose fresh areas to anthropogenic pressure”, before concluding that “these appear inevitable given the importance of the line”. 
In May 2004, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Environment Ministry observed that the project “for transporting mainly iron ore has not much justification” while “this will simply be a tragedy on the prime forests of the Western Ghats. Accordingly, the ministry rejected the proposal. 
In the following months, the Railway Ministry mounted pressure, underlining the importance of the project in view of increasing global demand for iron ore. In September, the FAC asked the Karnataka government to critically revise the proposal. The Railway ministry modified the proposal in 2005, reducing the forest land requirement to 720 hectare. 
In 2006, two NGOs approached the CEC which found that though the project was rejected, work was in progress on a 40-km non-forest stretch. Before CEC could take action, 80 per cent of earth and bridge works up to 47 km between Hubli and Kiravatti was complete. 
In 2011, the state government engaged the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to prepare a technical report. Recommending a Rs 450-crore mitigation plan, the IISc report said in 2012 that the proposed link would cut through a key elephant corridor and trigger conflict, while removal of trees would lead to a loss of 2.25 lakh tonnes of carbon and annual sequestration potential of upto 3,696 tonnes. 
Between 2006 and 2013, the CEC held seven hearings and meetings on the project. During this period, the Railways proposed to implement the project in stages while Karnataka further reduced the total forest land requirement to 687 hectare. 
Dismissing the reduction in forest-land requirement, the 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.” However, it said that the MoEF may divert five hectares of fringe forest land for the Hubli-Kalaghati stretch of the proposed link as sought by the Railways if the latter confirmed that the segment would be commercially viable by itself.