A statutory advisory panel under India's environment ministry has approved a plan to offset the clearing of a massive tract of contiguous jungle in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli by planting replacement forest 1,000 kilometres away.
The forest proposed for diversion is a single unbroken 937-hectare block within the Bhamragad Reserve Forest, supporting Indian gaur, sloth bear, leopard, dhole, tiger and the central Indian giant squirrel.
The recommendation to clear the forest land was made by the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) to M/s Lloyds Metals And Energy Limited for the exploration, excavation and recovery of low-grade iron ore in the Etapalli range of Gadchiroli.
The FAC's most recent meeting was convened specifically to approve a change to the compensatory afforestation condition, replacing an earlier, abandoned site with the current 23-patch configuration.
The approved replacement site lies in Ratnagiri district on Maharashtra's Konkan coast, roughly 1,000 km from Gadchiroli and on the other side of the Western Ghats.
The environment ministry's own forest cover analysis shows that of those 1,012 hectares, 150 carry very dense forest and 583 moderately dense forest, together accounting for nearly three-quarters of the designated area.
The ecological character of the two sites diverges further, with Gadchiroli's forests being dry and deciduous, receiving about 1,000 mm of annual rainfall, while the Konkan replacement patches occupy the wetter, west-facing slopes of the Sahyadri range.
