BENGALURU: Karnataka govt has rejected neighbouring Goa's proposal to draw a
power transmission line
through the
Western Ghats
forest by the Goa-Tamnar Transmission Project Limited (
GTTPL
), and directed the project executing agency to lay the line through non-forested areas instead.
The state govt has also ordered serving of showcause notice to
forest department
officials who had earlier recommended the project, overlooking destruction of large tracts of forested areas in the Ghats. Planning to light up parts of South Goa by sourcing power from Tamnar in Chhattisgarh, GTTPL had sought permission from Karnataka to divert a whopping 174.6 hectares of forest land, including the Kali Tiger Reserve (KTR), to lay a 400 kV transmission line.
Over 72k trees were on chopping block
While the user agency was yet to get a clearance from the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), GTTPL sought permission from Karnataka to lay the
transmission line
through state forests.
Based on the Central Electricity Authority's proposal to execute an additional 400 kV feed to Goa, GTTPL had reportedly planned the transmission line from Narendra village, near Dharwad in Karnataka, by tapping the existing 400 kV Narendra line of the Power Grid Corporation of India, linking the 400/200 kV substation at Xeldom in Goa.
The transmission line was aligned to pass through three Karnataka districts - Dharwad, Belagavi and Uttara Kannada - before reaching south Goa.
The user agency had also submitted to take up afforestation in nine villages of Belagavi, Dharwad and Uttara Kannada on 360 hectares of degraded forest land.
After the initial objection to the proposed alignment, GTTPL authorities had submitted realignment of the transmission line to avoid taking it through dense forests. Moreover, the alignment cleared by the forest department required clearing out of more than 72,000 trees in four forest divisions, including the Dandeli wildlife division.
Surprisingly, the deputy conservator of forests from Dharwad, Haliyal and Dandeli had recommended the diversion proposal, while their counterpart from Belagavi rejected it.
While the conservator of forests (Canara Circle) and chief conservator of forests (Dharwad) had recommended it, CCF Belagavi had rejected the proposal citing
ecological destruction
.
Based on the ground officer's opinion, PCCF (HoFF) submitted the proposal to ACS, forest department, for consideration under the Forest Act 1980 for diversion of 174.65 hectares of forest. However, ACS forest department, in consultation with Karnataka forest minister Eshwar Khandre, rejected the proposal and directed the user agency to lay the transmission line through non-forested landscape.
In a stern letter to the forest department dated March 16, 2024, a copy of which was accessed by STOI, the ACS directed: "Henceforth, the department shall take very strict action on projects like these in the larger interests of forest, environment and
wildlife conservation
for the future generation."
Commenting on the issue, wildlife conservationist Giridhar Kulkarni said: "It is indeed a positive development and goes in the larger interest of wildlife conservation in the districts of Belagavi and Uttara Kannada. I had submitted multiple representations to the authorities to reject the previous as well as the revised proposal." He further said: "We thank forest minister Eshwar Khandre for taking such a bold decision to save the precious Western Ghats from rapacious development."
English (US) ·