Indo-Nepal Wildlife Conservation Initiative: Maintaining the Balance

Indo-Nepal Wildlife Conservation Initiative: Maintaining the Balance
Green clearances for border infrastructure projects may have been fast tracked, but conservation has been saved from a death knell. Indian Express has reported that a strategic road on the Indo-Nepal border will now stretch for an additional mile to save forests and wildlife of the Terai Arc landscape. The 810 km long trans-boundary landscape is home to a vast variety of flora and fauna.

The organisations behind this initiative are the SSB or Sashastra Seema Bal, the Uttar Pradesh Public Works Department and the State Forest Department. All three have collaborated to draw up the conservation plan. As [er the plan, road stretches will be elevated at a total of 16 sites. This means a total of 31 km will be elevated and three stretches will be realigned to secure wildlife movement between the two nations.

B. D. Sharma, the Director General of SS informed the Indian Express said that “We support conservation and share the collective concerns of the stakeholders.” Proposed changes to the border road plan will lead to an increase in the project cost by 20 to 20 percent. Indian Express has reported that the actual figure will only be known after DPRs or detailed project reports have undergone the process of finalisation. This initiative was conceived during the term of the first UPA government. This 961 km road from Uttarakhand to Bihar will connect the SSB border outposts. In the year 2010, the Ministry of Home Affairs had provided clearance for this 640 km UP stretch with a total budget of 1621 crore.

Work is now set to commence in 12 segments of the road which are not part of the forest land. Remaining 16 segments will cut through the Dudhwa National Park as well as 3 sanctuaries and forest divisions. The stakeholders in this initiative including user SSB aswell as the PWD and Forest Department came together with WWF India as well as WWF Nepal to find the solution for this area.

S P Saxena, Chief Engineer of the Uttar Pradesh PWD, was quoted by Indian Express as saying “This road is a must for the country’s security and these forests and animals are our national asset. We have agreed on a set of measures though these will be expensive.” Rupak De, Chief Wildlife Warden, Uttar Pradesh added “It was important for different interest groups to sit together and find a middle ground. We have to finalise site-specific details and then set up a joint monitoring committee to ensure compliance during construction.”

Dipankar Ghose, Director, Species and Landscapes, WWF-India, has expressed sincere hope regarding the initiative: “The conservation benefits justify additional costs and we hope financial considerations will not come in the way of this landmark consensus.” “Also, India is financing a similar road project in Nepal that will run close and almost parallel to this road. Unless the two governments come together to incorporate similar measures in that project, all the good work on the Indian side may not be enough to secure this landscape,” he said.