BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government on Friday said the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has been approached to formulate a site-specific wildlife conservation plan for the proposed airport at Puri after the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) flagged ecological concerns.
The Commerce and Transport department said the airport project is on track. “The Zoological Survey of India’s regional office in Gopalpur is already conducting a study, which will include the airport’s likely impact on dolphins and migratory birds. As advised by the FAC, a site-specific wildlife conservation plan is being formulated in collaboration with WII for mitigation measures,” it said.
The FAC had recently deferred its clearance on forest land diversion raising concerns over potential ecological damage to critical wildlife habitats. It had advised the state government to consult WII and seek its recommendations on the possible threat to Olive Ridley turtles, Irrawaddy dolphins and lakhs of migratory birds that frequent the Chilika lake area.
Since over 13,000 trees, mostly casuarina, acacia and cashew are expected to be felled for the airport, the FAC had also asked the state to justify the ecological cost of clearing the forest land and provide a mitigation plan for climate eventualities, especially when Odisha is a cyclone-prone state.
The panel’s direction came following a detailed site inspection report submitted by the ministry’s regional office, which cited that the proposed project site lies just 2.3 km from the Olive Ridley nesting grounds at Balukhand wildlife sanctuary and around 10 to 11 km from the ecologically sensitive Chilika lake. It had cautioned that the location’s proximity to major avian flyways could increase the risk of bird strikes and disturb the natural migratory behaviour of several bird species that use the central Asian flyway.
The department, however said, Chilika lake is about 21 km from the site and flights from eastern to southern cities already operate in the same airspace that has no adverse impact on migration of birds.
Last year, the state government had sought the approval of the FAC for diversion of 27.8 hectare of forest land in Sipasarubali and Sandhapur areas under Brahmagiri tehsil for the construction of Shree Jagannath International Airport at a cost of Rs 5,631 crore.
On June 26, the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), another panel of the ministry, has already recommended environmental clearance for the project after the Ministry of Civil Aviation accorded its in-principle approval.