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| October 02, 2012 |
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| Caught In The Fire |
| August 25, 2012 |
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Eco-park never got a green light
February 06, 2011
Swati Sharma, Hyderabad:
The eco-tourism project at the Botanical Gardens in Kothaguda on the outskirts of the city, it appears, is everything that it shouldn’t be. It has no environmental clearance. Nonetheless, construction work is going ahead.
“The eco-tourism project will result in creation of permanent structures on about 15 per cent of the total area of the project, leading to practically irreversible change of land use,” said KS Reddy, chief conservator of forests (central), in his reply to a query posed by RTI activists.
“As on date, about 15 per cent of the work has been completed. Digging of earth for the purpose of underground parking has also been noticed,” he revealed.
The moot question is how the AP Forest Development Corporation (APFDC) could go ahead with the work.
A top forest official has attributed the sorry state of affairs to lack of political will and absence of leadership among forest officials. “While politicians have been greedily aiding in plundering the forest wealth of the state, forest department officials are busy squabbling among themselves for positions,” he said.
“For the eco-tourism project no environment clearance (EC) has so far been obtained. The application for EC should have been made by APFDC for the entire area of 110 hectares (274 acres), but that has not been done so far. Without EC no work could have commenced since forest conservation guidelines stipulate that clearance is deemed to be given only after FC and EC are obtained,” pointed out AV Reddy, a member of the Lumbini Welfare Association, which has submitted a petition to the Centre.
“We are meeting Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh in Delhi on Monday to bring it to his notice. The GHMC too has refused to take action against the construction,” he said.
According to him, a decision was made by the state government in 2001 to allow the Kothaguda Reserve Forest to be used to boost eco-tourism under the auspices of the APFDC with private investment.
As per the plan, a 2,500-seat capacity convention centre spread over 1 lakh sft, a shopping area of 6.64 lakh sft and a 400-room hotel in a 4.4 lakh sft area, will come up in the garden in public-private partnership. “The construction work is being carried out at night,” AV Reddy alleged.
According to forest officials, the government has, in the last few years, initiated unprecedented scale of developmental works which have greatly upset the conservation:development ratio. “Thousands of hectares of forest land have been de-reserved for these works which are obviously for commercial purpose. Along with works in the sanctioned area, illegal activities are taking place in the guise of sanctioned works and causing destruction of huge tracts of forest land,” said an official.
Change in plan
The 274-acre reserve forest area, called Kothaguda Block, was originally planned to be developed as a botanical garden but some vested interests have managed to obtain permission from the Centre to promote an eco-tourism project in the PPP mode. “The objective of the original project, conceived a decade ago, was biodiversity conservation and ecotourism. Over the next 10 years, surprisingly and regrettably, one commercial block after another, in the name of amenities for visitors, was included in the project. These blocks include a multiplex, a convention center, a hotel, office blocks, merchandise multiplex and other commercial blocks. The promoters secured the required approvals with each department concerned contributing its share of guilt,” says Revanth Reddy, TDP MLA.
Rubbishing APFDCL director’s proposal for giving away land for afforestation in Chittoor district in lieu of the Kothaguda forest land, Revanth Reddy asks, “How ridiculous? How can you give land in Chittoor as compensation? The administration went out of its way to help the promoters. The compensatory afforestation identified in Chittoor district is no match to the land in the metro.”
Earlier, talking to The New Indian Express, KN Benarji, director (eco-tourism) of APFDCL, confirmed that the government of India had approved setting apart 15 percent of the land for visitors’ amenities. No five-star hotel was coming up on the eco-tourism project site, he clarified.
“We have received no communication from the Centre. In fact, we have sought some more clarifications from the state government in the change of land use. Once we receive the response, we will plan our course of action accordingly,” said GV Raghu, chief city planner of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
Meanwhile, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has opposed the construction of commercial structures in the Kothaguda forest block. Reacting to the petitions submitted by activists to stop the work, the ministry has issued a detailed report stating that all such constructions coming up on the site should be stopped at the earliest. However, the ministry has limited its response to the petitioner, failing to issue orders to the authorities concerned to stop construction on the site.
Claiming that the Kothaguda forest block is one of the very few large green patches remaining in the city, the ministry has stated that giving it away for commercial complexes is ‘undesirable’. Further, the report states that there is a risk of this project setting an example for similar projects to mushroom in future.
Eco-park never got a green light
http://expressbuzz.com/cities/hyderabad/Eco-park-never-got-a-green-light/245621.html
6 February 2011
http://expressbuzz.com/cities/hyderabad/Eco-park-never-got-a-green-light/245621.html
6 February 2011
Swati Sharma, Hyderabad:
The eco-tourism project at the Botanical Gardens in Kothaguda on the outskirts of the city, it appears, is everything that it shouldn’t be. It has no environmental clearance. Nonetheless, construction work is going ahead.
“The eco-tourism project will result in creation of permanent structures on about 15 per cent of the total area of the project, leading to practically irreversible change of land use,” said KS Reddy, chief conservator of forests (central), in his reply to a query posed by RTI activists.
“As on date, about 15 per cent of the work has been completed. Digging of earth for the purpose of underground parking has also been noticed,” he revealed.
The moot question is how the AP Forest Development Corporation (APFDC) could go ahead with the work.
A top forest official has attributed the sorry state of affairs to lack of political will and absence of leadership among forest officials. “While politicians have been greedily aiding in plundering the forest wealth of the state, forest department officials are busy squabbling among themselves for positions,” he said.
“For the eco-tourism project no environment clearance (EC) has so far been obtained. The application for EC should have been made by APFDC for the entire area of 110 hectares (274 acres), but that has not been done so far. Without EC no work could have commenced since forest conservation guidelines stipulate that clearance is deemed to be given only after FC and EC are obtained,” pointed out AV Reddy, a member of the Lumbini Welfare Association, which has submitted a petition to the Centre.
“We are meeting Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh in Delhi on Monday to bring it to his notice. The GHMC too has refused to take action against the construction,” he said.
According to him, a decision was made by the state government in 2001 to allow the Kothaguda Reserve Forest to be used to boost eco-tourism under the auspices of the APFDC with private investment.
As per the plan, a 2,500-seat capacity convention centre spread over 1 lakh sft, a shopping area of 6.64 lakh sft and a 400-room hotel in a 4.4 lakh sft area, will come up in the garden in public-private partnership. “The construction work is being carried out at night,” AV Reddy alleged.
According to forest officials, the government has, in the last few years, initiated unprecedented scale of developmental works which have greatly upset the conservation:development ratio. “Thousands of hectares of forest land have been de-reserved for these works which are obviously for commercial purpose. Along with works in the sanctioned area, illegal activities are taking place in the guise of sanctioned works and causing destruction of huge tracts of forest land,” said an official.
Change in plan
The 274-acre reserve forest area, called Kothaguda Block, was originally planned to be developed as a botanical garden but some vested interests have managed to obtain permission from the Centre to promote an eco-tourism project in the PPP mode. “The objective of the original project, conceived a decade ago, was biodiversity conservation and ecotourism. Over the next 10 years, surprisingly and regrettably, one commercial block after another, in the name of amenities for visitors, was included in the project. These blocks include a multiplex, a convention center, a hotel, office blocks, merchandise multiplex and other commercial blocks. The promoters secured the required approvals with each department concerned contributing its share of guilt,” says Revanth Reddy, TDP MLA.
Rubbishing APFDCL director’s proposal for giving away land for afforestation in Chittoor district in lieu of the Kothaguda forest land, Revanth Reddy asks, “How ridiculous? How can you give land in Chittoor as compensation? The administration went out of its way to help the promoters. The compensatory afforestation identified in Chittoor district is no match to the land in the metro.”
Earlier, talking to The New Indian Express, KN Benarji, director (eco-tourism) of APFDCL, confirmed that the government of India had approved setting apart 15 percent of the land for visitors’ amenities. No five-star hotel was coming up on the eco-tourism project site, he clarified.
“We have received no communication from the Centre. In fact, we have sought some more clarifications from the state government in the change of land use. Once we receive the response, we will plan our course of action accordingly,” said GV Raghu, chief city planner of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
Meanwhile, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has opposed the construction of commercial structures in the Kothaguda forest block. Reacting to the petitions submitted by activists to stop the work, the ministry has issued a detailed report stating that all such constructions coming up on the site should be stopped at the earliest. However, the ministry has limited its response to the petitioner, failing to issue orders to the authorities concerned to stop construction on the site.
Claiming that the Kothaguda forest block is one of the very few large green patches remaining in the city, the ministry has stated that giving it away for commercial complexes is ‘undesirable’. Further, the report states that there is a risk of this project setting an example for similar projects to mushroom in future.