The National Board for Wild Life (NBWL) has decided to grant approval to a request made by the Adani group to operate a granite quarry near the Neyyar and Peppara wildlife sanctuaries for the Vizhinjam seaport project.
The decision by the standing committee of the NBWL, chaired by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) Bhupender Yadav, was taken on May 30 on the basis of recommendations made by the State Board for Wildlife and the Chief Wildlife Warden.
The proposed quarry of Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Limited is spread over 1.927 ha and falls under the “default Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ)”. It is situated at an aerial distance of 5.12 km from the Peppara wildlife sanctuary and 6.76 km from the Neyyar wildlife sanctuary.
The move comes at a time when the villages of Kallikadu, Amboori, Vazhichal, Vithura, and Mannoorkara have been agitating against an MoEFCC draft notification to designate the region around the Neyyar and Peppara wildlife sanctuaries as ESZ that will restrict several activities.
Moreover, a recent Supreme Court directive to demarcate one km around protected areas as ESZ has put people in the forest fringes in a quandary.
On being asked to propose specific mitigation measures for the impact on the sanctuaries, the Chief Wildlife Warden maintained there would not be any need for such measures on account of the considerable distance that separated the quarry unit from the sanctuaries.
He informed the standing committee that the proposed quarry unit did not fall in the notified draft ESZ of the protected areas. He added the project would have no negative impact on the sanctuaries and the nearby reserve forests.
The panel laid down various conditions while recommending the proposal. No activities can be undertaken in the quarry before sunrise and after sunset. The agency will have to contribute ₹10 lakh towards efforts to mitigate human-wildlife conflict. It will also be required to submit an annual compliance certificate on the stipulated norms to the Chief Wildlife Warden.
At the same meeting, the NBWL standing committee deferred decisions on quarries proposed near the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary, Periyar Tiger Reserve, and the Peechi-Vazhani Sanctuary for want of a comprehensive human-wildlife mitigation plan from the State.
