Jairam Ramesh today criticised the upcoming Ken-Betwa river link project between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, saying it would have a bearing on the Panna Tiger Reserve.
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh today criticised the upcoming Ken-Betwa river link project between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, saying it would have a bearing on the Panna Tiger Reserve.
"I was shocked to find that Panna Tiger Reserve is involved in the Ken-Betwa river link which is the only project (on inter-linking river) that has progressed so far," he said at a workshop organised here by the Wildlife Institute of India.
Ken-Betwa link will transfer excess water from Ken to Betwa through a 231km canal.
The critical observation by the minister comes close on the heels of the ministry's rejection of coal mining proposals from Adani Power Ltd and Maharashtra Coal Company as they were adjacent to Tadoba Tiger Reserve in the state.
"I have already intervened and rejected two coal mining projects near Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra," Ramesh said, indicating the course of action he is likely to take on the river linking project which threatens to submerge at least 140 hectares of land of Panna Tiger Reserve.
"We have many such threats that the tiger reserves face... but we are not going to simply compromise ecology security in the name of development. There are many such projects and we are not going to do anything that minimises our biodiversity," he said.
Tiger expert, PK Sen, too criticised the river linking project, saying it would mean taking away of nearly 140 hectares of area from the core of the reserve in Madhya Pradesh. Ramesh said the forest land of Madhya Pradesh will suffer as out of the 8,650 hectares likely to get submerged, 6,4000 hectare is forest land and 2,171 hectare culturable land. Some of it falls under the Panna National Park.
Out of a 533sq km of Panna National Park, 45.96sq km of reserve forest will be submerged at Full Reservoir Level, he said.
Ken is the last tributary of Yamuna before it joins Ganga, 87% of it lies in Madhya Pradesh and 12% in Uttar Pradesh. Betwa is an inter-state river that rises in Raisen district of MP. It is also a tributary of Yamuna.
A tripartite MoU was signed between the Union minister for water resources and chief ministers of UP and MP in 2005 for preparing a detailed project report on Ken-Betwa link.
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