Supreme Court cleared freight corridor's Sanjay Gandhi National Park sojourn in 2013

The environmentalists and some political parties that are seeing red over the handing over of around 58 hectares of 'forest' land to the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) to have the line run inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park might have woken up a bit late in the day.

The alignment of the Rs84,000 crore project, especially the one running from JNPT to Dahanu, which includes the national park segment, has already been cleared by first the Bombay High Court in March 2013 and then the Supreme Court in August the same year. Officials pointed out that it was given the all-clear by the highest courts in the land under two vital Acts that govern forests and environment, namely the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

In fact, if officials of DFCC are to be believed, the alignment of the high-speed freight line that will run through the national park actually isn't forest land at all. The alignment runs parallel to the already existing Vasai-Diva line which has been running for decades now and is the vital link for trains to make the journey from north India to the south and vice versa on the western part of the country.

"It is a technical issue related to mapping. Between 1996 and 2000 the boundaries of the national park were redrawn and the land on which the current Diva-Vasai line runs and the one meant for the DFC became part of forest land. The Forest Advisory Committee's approval was needed to get this land diverted from forest use to non-forest use like say running trains. It was this approval for 58 hectares that came in on December 22, 2012," explained an official.

In short, officials said, the very Vasai-Diva line that connects Central Railway to Western Railway would be in jeopardy if objections are raised on the freight corridor alignment since both run just meters away from each other, said officials.

Railway officials, having spent the better part of four years, are on the front-foot over the project and say that the heavy-backing its is getting from the Prime Minister's Office will almost certainly ensure that it will be commissioned by 2019. The western leg from JNPT to Dadri in Uttar Pradesh is slated for completion by October 2019 and the eastern leg from West Bengal to Punjab by December 2019.

Clearance under Forest Conservation Act, 1980
For diversion of 58.1498 hectares of forest land
1. Proposal recommended by state govt to Union ministry of environment and forests on November 8, 2012
2. First stage clearance for diversion of 58.1498 Ha of forest land granted by MOEF on January 6, 2014
3. Final clearance issued by MOEF on December 16, 2015
4. Government order issued by state govt on February 29, 2016

Clearance under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972
1. Total length of alignment passing through SGNP: 1,185 mtr
2. Supreme Court allows diversion of 8.05 Ha area of forest land falling in SGNP for the construction of dedicated freight corridor on August 26, 2013. Lays down condition that four wildlife crossings will have to be made, and no construction activity in the forests at night. It also lays down that there will be no blasting activity inside the forest
3. DFCC deposits Rs15 crore with SGNP as part of these mitigation measures
4. Report of Bombay Natural History Society regarding mitigation measures approved by State Government – July 14, 2015

Chronology of events to get wildlife clearance
(a) Recommendation by State Board of Wildlife : July 7, 2012
(b) Proposal forwarded to MOEF by state govt : August 21, 2012
(c) Recommended by Standing Committee of National Board of Wildlife: December 12, 2012
(d) Recommendation of Central Empowered Committee (CEC) constituted by Supreme Court of India – August 13, 2013
(e) Permission granted by Supreme Court of India – August 26, 2013