NEW DELHI: After being criticised for not monitoring conditions that were laid for clearing projects, a member of the wildlife panel has now complained to Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave to find a solution as such cases are becoming rampant.
The matter was raised during the standing committee meeting of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) held in January and an expert member H S Singh said that there is no proper monitoring of conditions put while recommending the project.
“H S Singh explained that standing committee recommends the projects/activities, on a case to case basis, subject to certain mitigation measures to minimise the adverse impact on wildlife. He lamented that there is no monitoring of the terms and conditions stipulated while recommending the projects/proposals,” said the minutes of the meeting of the NBWL’s standing committee.
The standing committee of NBWL recommends projects that fall within a 10 kilometer distance of protected areas, including tiger reserves and national parks and a final decision is taken by the environment ministry.
Singh was also of the view that India needed to enhance the protected area network in accordance with Aichi Targets to 17 per cent from the present 4.9 per cent of its geographical area. There are presently 600 protected areas - national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.
Several environment activists have also raised the issue of project proponents not following conditions being laid at the time of project clearance.