TS government greenlights pending road projects in forest areas

Hyderabad: The Telangana State government granted stage one approval to 26 out of 200 pending road proposals in forest covered areas under the Forest Conservation Act.

The State Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Nodal Officer, M.C. Pargaien, reviewed the progress of various road proposals involving diversion of forest land being executed by different departments, including the State Roads and Buildings wing, National Highway Authority of India, and Panchayat Raj department.

During the meeting, Pargaien urged all participants to resolve the pending issues on priority to ensure the expeditious processing of the proposals, taking into account the recent changes in forest conservation rules. More than 71 proposals of roads falling in protected areas have been submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forests in New Delhi to get approval of the National Board for Wildlife. Officials confirmed that the balance 103 proposals are under various stages of processing.

Given the launch of the updated version of Parivesh 2.0, an online submission and monitoring platform for proposals by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Telangana Forest department has decided to organise an interactive training and capacity building workshop on Parivesh 2.0 for all concerned officers of various user departments in May 2023.