Mumbai-Ahmadabad Bullet Train Gets Green Light to Pass Through Flamingo Sanctuary, National Park
Raising serious environmental concerns over the bullet train project, a committee, chaired by Union Environment Minister, has accorded wildlife clearance to the Mumbai-Ahmadabad high speed train corridor that encroaches upon a flamingo sanctuary and the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the home to leopards, in Mumbai. A wildlife clearance is a critical part of the forest clearance process bit.ly/2UNxsuk.
The project was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Ahmedabad in September, 2017.
The bullet train project needs 115.5 hectare forests from notified eco-sensitive zones of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), the Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary and the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary. The proposal also involves diverting 32.75 ha of forestland and 77.30 ha of non-forestland from Sanjay Gandhi National Park and from 0.6902 ha of forestland and 4.7567 ha of non-forest land from Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary.
The state government would give permission to start work only after the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), which is building the railway line, submits a detailed animal passage plan based on guidelines by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun.
