Natl wildlife board says no to proposed airport in Chandrapur’s protected tiger area

The National Board for Wildlife has rejected the proposal to construct a Greenfield airport in Maharashtra due to concerns about wildlife impact and human-wildlife conflict.

Nagpur: The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), the topmost decision-making body on projects in corridors and protected areas (PAs), rejected the proposal of Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation to construct Greenfield airport at Vihirgaon and Murti villages in Rajura taluka in Chandrapur. The project was proposed by state forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar who said it would ‘promote’ tiger tourism in the state.

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The minutes of the meeting said the proposed airport is going to impact functional connectivity and may result in a surge of human-wildlife conflict in the district. The proposed airport site is 63.540 hectares of land, out of which 25.27 hectares is protected forest land and 38.27 hectares is reserve forest land.

The standing committee of NBWL was further informed that the Wildlife Institute of India survey report mentions that given the wildlife value of the area and its importance of connecting corridors, the present site shall not be considered for the construction of the airport.

The standing committee noted that Morwa airport is situated within Chandrapur and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport (Nagpur Airport) is located within 150 kilometres from Chandrapur. The member secretary of the national tiger conservation authority has also said that the area has a good presence of tigers and the location of this project will have an adverse impact on the tiger movement, the minutes said.

A senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer said, “After the four-laning of the National Highway, it takes 2 hours from Nagpur airport to reach Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. Having an airport in Chandrapur would be disastrous. We have a great presence of tigers in the entire Tadoba Andhari and buffer zone and it would have got disturbed.’’

It is pertinent to mention that the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) during its meeting held on December 9, 2022, observed that the proposed site is surrounded by non-forest land and recommended that the state government shall therefore explore other options for using non-forest land instead of using forest land for the project.

The FAC also advised the state to explore the possibility of expanding the already existing Chandrapur (Morwa) airport. Inspector General of Forests, Forest Conservation Division informed that this project proposal has also been rejected under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.

Mungantiwar wanted this proposal to promote tiger tourism in the state. He said, “Some officers are opposing this site but I will push for it again. The recommended site does not affect the wildlife.’’