Proposed Hubballi -Ankola railway line may cause landslides, warn experts

Hubballi: The proposal of the Hubballi-Ankola railway project, which will pass through the sensitive region of the Western Ghats, cannot be accepted in its current form. An expert committee headed by the Additional Director General of the Union Ministry of Forests, Environment and Climate Change said that there is no mention of landslides in Uttara Kannada district in recent years and there is no mention of this in the proposal of the Railway Department.

A committee of experts met the people of the project area, received the report and submitted a 50-page report to the Ministry of Environment. This report was obtained under the Right to Information Act.The committee also suggested that the Railway Department should prepare a sustainable and implementable action plan. The committee also said that 12 types of precautionary measures should be taken to prevent landslides during the construction of the railway line.

Of the 161 km. long railway line, 108 km. would pass through dense and diverse forest. Frequent landslides are occurring in 32 areas of Shirasi, Yallapur, Dandeli and Karwar taluks of Uttara Kannada district., 3.7 per cent of the district is prone to landslides. The committee pointed out that the possibility of landslides in 25.8 per cent area cannot be ruled out.

During the construction of the railway line, the plan format has been changed many times to reduce forest destruction. For the project, it is proposed to reduce the amount of forest use and build a large number of tunnels and bridges. Even after all this development, the expert committee has warned that the forest destruction will be on a large scale during the implementation of the project. Railway tunnels can pose a threat to wildlife if safety precautions are not taken. Wild animals like tigers and leopards come inside the train tunnel in summer due to the cold environment. In this case they are more likely to get killed by trains. Such an incident took place in Madhya Pradesh. The committee heard that a scientific study should be conducted on the impact of the project on wildlife and the next step should be taken.

594 hectares of forest land will be destroyed for the construction of railway tracks. Around 1 thousand hectares of forest will be lost including the construction of roads to implement the project. This will lead to the destruction of rare species of life in the Western Ghats and will also destroy the movement of wildlife, the committee expressed its opinion.

The committee was formed in the 68th meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Wildlife Board held in June 2022. It was directed to review the proposal, survey the site, check the impact on the forest and wildlife and submit a report. Wildlife activist Giridhar Kulkarni has approached the Karnataka High Court demanding that this project, which will lead to the felling of nearly 2 lakh trees in the Western Ghats, should be abandoned. The trial of this case is under progress in the High Court.