Human dam not at cost of tigers, corridor: Govt

Nagpur: Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday sent a clear message to the irrigation department officials that the Human major dam, proposed 3.5km from the boundary of Tadoba, should not be at the cost of the tiger corridor and ecology.
He was addressing a high-level meeting called at the insistence of former forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, who is desperately pushing the project in its present form.The project would need 1,925 hectare forest land, leading to felling of over 1.51 lakh trees, destroying 6-7km functional corridor.
The four-member NTCA committee in its November 2014 site appraisal report had recommended three options if at all the project was to be taken up.
The recommendations included shifting the project 5km upstream from present site at Sirkada. The other two options were procuring private land and rehabilitating villages to restore structural corridor of 2-3km downstream, and convert it into forest by planting native species, or develop lift irrigation schemes, barrages, small dams etc instead of a major dam.
However, the irrigation department ruled out the other two options and insisted on Option II by pitching to develop 1km corridor by acquiring 200 hectare land. It was not ready to talk about the other two options. Sources said CM Thackeray was clear and expressed his intention to save forests and corridors, just like he stopped tree felling in Aarey forest in Mumbai. “I will allow projects but at the same time saving tigers will also be my priority,” he said.
Sources said since no solution was working out, some experts of the state wildlife board asked the CM why Option I was not being implemented? “If the dam is shifted 5km upstream, the project will generate 6 TMC water, 3 TMC less than what has been proposed. So, what is the harm? It will save tigers and corridor, and project will also come up,” said sources.
To this, Thackeray agreed and asked the irrigation department to come up with a fresh proposal. Sources said irrigation officials will now work out five separate proposals, with scenarios for the project shifting 5km to 1km upstream.
While making these proposals irrigation officials said they will have to get forest clearance afresh. To this, Thackeray is learnt to have said that Mungantiwar can expedite it with the BJP government at the Centre and state will play its role here.