252.75 hectares in Patan Taluka located in the hilly region near Karad-Chiplun highway was handed over to the forest department on Tuesday
Kolhapur: Amid mounting opposition to the proposed Sai Dongar Pumped Storage Project in Karjat, state govt transferred more than 252 hectares of private land in Satara district to the forest department. The land, spread across Kemse (196 ha) and Dhankal (56 ha) villages near the Karad-Chiplun highway, lies adjacent to Sahyadri Tiger Reserve (STR) and will eventually be integrated into the reserve, forest officials said. The move comes as the project, which involves diversion of about 233 hectares of forest land and the felling of 32,490 trees, faces protests from locals, political opposition and environmental groups questioning its ecological impact and environmental clearance. “If we oppose pumped storage, we will have to use fossil fuels, and planting 28 crore trees is impossible. In this project, 90,000 trees are being planted. Torrent Power, which is executing the project, said in a statement that it had “identified 253 hectares (625 acres) private land with tree cover of about 70,000 trees and handed over the same to forest department as compensatory afforestation land. “This 252-hectare site has evergreen forest with a canopy density of 0.7 and has now been transferred as forest reserve.
Twice the land taken for the project has been given to the forest department for afforestation,” he said. Forest officials said the transferred land carries significant ecological value. “Although this land was previously under private ownership, it was within the buffer zone of Sahyadri Tiger Reserve and the ecologically sensitive zone of Western Ghats,” said Amol Satpute, deputy conservator of forests, Satara. STR field director Tushar Chavan said, “If this land is notified in Sahyadri Tiger Reserve, then it will further strengthen wildlife monitoring and conservation.”
Torrent Power had earlier stated that land would be transferred for compensatory afforestation. Defending the project earlier this week, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis argued that pumped-storage projects were critical for clean energy generation.