Kamal Ghorui
Panaji: After Goa made a second request to the Union environment ministry’s Regional Empowered Committee (REC) to allow diversion of forest for the Kulem-Madgaon section double tracking, the committee deferred the proposal stating that mere recommendation of mitigation measures are not sufficient.The REC said that Wildlife Institute of India report on the project is limited to proposing mitigation measures and said that it should include detailed analysis of the impact of the project.The REC said that the project impact on the biodiversity and ecology of the protected areas of the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary should be studied, with suitable measures recommended to address this adverse impact.The REC has also said that Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) should first approach the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife or the Central Empowered Committee for a decision in the matter, prior to seeking the REC’s nod.Last year, the committee had asked the RVNL to carry out a cumulative assessment of the double tracking project. The work was allotted and carried out by the Wildlife Institute of India. But the report needs to include detailed analysis of the impact of the project on biodiversity and ecology of the protected areas of the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary.“The REC noted that it had not agreed to the request of the user agency (during its previous meeting) and had directed them to expand the scope of the study to include the Kulem-Kalem section, as it forms part of the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary. The said decision was communicated to the state govt in letter dated March 6, 2025. The REC reiterates that the cumulative impact assessment report pertaining to the Kulem-Kalem section must be placed before the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife or the Central Empowered Committee for approval prior to its submission before the REC,” the committee said.The double tracking proposals of the Goa portion and the Karnataka portion had been recommended by the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBW) had in its meeting held on Dec 17, 2019, and Jan 5, 2021, respectively.However, later the Goa Foundation approached Supreme Court over the projects, and the central empowered committee of the court recommended revocation of permission granted by standing committee of NBW for doubling of the railway track passing through the ecologically-sensitive Western Ghats from Tinaighat-Castlerock in Karnataka to Kulem in Goa, involving 120.8ha of land from Bhagawan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary in Goa and 10.45ha in Karnataka.Based on the proceedings in the Supreme Court, the REC on May 12, 2022, issued directions to keep in abeyance the approval issued for diversion of 15.6ha of forest land for the Kulem-Madgaon double tracking work.In March last year, Goa and RVNL requested a revocation of the abeyance before the ministry’s regional committed. But the request was rejected by the REC. After a year, the Goa govt had made its second request for revocation of the abeyance order on the forest diversion.
