A grassland for a rare bird

One of the common refrains that proponents of the controversial Challakere projects had been resorting to so far was that the ecologically-fragile grasslands was not a critical wildlife habitat. But now, the bluff has been called.

The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has filed an affidavit with the National Green Tribunal (Southern Zone) insisting that the Amrit Mahal Kaval grassland ecosystems indeed constitute a critical habitat for the Great Indian Bustard, which it noted is “a critically endangered species”. The ministry has also held that the Kavals constitute “a potential habitat of Great Indian Bustard”.

The Great Indian Bustard is one of the most endangered birds in India, with not more than 250 individuals estimated to exist. The bird made it to the priorities of the MoEF about a year-and-half back when it issued a number of conservation guidelines to states. The bustard is a Schedule I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

The ministry, on Wednesday, was responding to a direction given on September 27 by Justice M Chockalingam (judicial member) and R Nagendran (expert member) of the NGT. The MoEF has also confirmed that “part of the area allotted to various organisations” such as the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), among others, “has in fact been included in the list of deemed forests prepared in compliance of a 1996 Supreme Court order.”

This response came after the NGT had directed it to respond to applications challenging diversion of 10,000 acres of Amrit Mahal Kavals grassland ecosystems to a variety of public sector and commercial projects by October 30 or face serious consequences. The Southern Zone bench of the NGT, based in Chennai, had warned that failure to comply, by filing an appropriate response, would attract a fine of Rs1 lakh in each of the two applications filed by city-based Environment Support Group and Leo Saldanha.

The tribunal had earlier, on August 21, ordered a status quo on all activities in these grasslands of Challakere taluk in Chitradurga district. The directions were issued on the interim prayers of applications that complained that the DRDO, IISc, ISCRO, BARC, Karnataka Small Scale Industries Development Corporation, and Karnataka Housing Board, had commenced project activities in these ecologically sensitive areas in absolute violation of laws protecting the environment, wildlife, forests, and people’s rights.

The documents filed by ESG had elaborated on the wildlife prevalent in the Challakere grasslands. However, the expert committee had given the issue of wildlife a glaring miss in its main report that had been filed with the tribunal. The ministry has now said that “during the site inspection by the regional office of the ministry on August 6 this year, it was gathered that the area used to support and is even now also supporting wildlife such as blackbuck, hares, and sloth bear, among others.”

The MoEF has said that the “1200 hectares out of the Amrut Mahal Kaval area allotted to various organisations has in fact been included in the list of deemed forest prepared in compliance of the Supreme Court order. Hence, this 1200 hectares area, in any case, requires forest clearance before it is put to non-forestry use, and there is a case for examining the inclusion of remaining area also in the deemed forest as per the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court since both the areas are similar”.

The ministry has also virtually lend its weight to activists who had been cry foul, alleging rampant and flagrant violation of environmental laws. The MoEF submitted in its statement that “there is violation of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 in as much as some of the project authorities have started the work without clearance under Environment Protection Act, 1986”.

The NGT has posted these matters for final hearing on December 19.