NTCA tells NHAI to stop road work in Satpura-Melghat corridor

Nagpur: The National Tiger Conservation (NTCA) has asked Madhya Pradesh chief wildlife warden to ask the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to stop road widening work in the Satpura-Melghat tiger reserve corridor on NH-46 (old NH-69) in Betul-Obedullaganj section.
The NTCA communication issued on April 27 has also sought a report from MP PCCF (wildlife) based on a complaint filed by road ecologist Milind Pariwakam on April 26.It had been noticed that despite a stay granted on April 1 by the Jabalpur high court on a PIL filed by Advait Keole, the NHAI was engaged in road work in the corridor. NHAI had installed some signboards marking the start and end of the corridor in Keslaghat. The fact that NHAI had started marking wildlife corridors on the ground was highly objectionable and should have been immediately stopped by the Madhya Pradesh forest department.
The locations of the signboards marking the end of the corridor were completely wrong and in blatant violation of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. “We visited the entire stretch of highway on April 30 and found heavy earthmoving machinery and excavators engaged in road work in Keslaghat and Bhoura patches, which are crucial corridors. We observed that NHAI has wrongly put up signboards demarcating the corridor stretch in the northern half of Keslaghat,” said Pariwakam.
Vishal Bansod, former honorary wildlife warden of Amravati, said, “The NHAI unilaterally demarcating tiger corridors and carrying out road work is a serious violation. How is the northern half of the Keslaghat not a corridor? Who allowed NHAI to carry on work here? Those responsible must be penalized.”
“Even the Bhoura patch, where work is going on, has the presence of tigers. Last year, a tiger was killed in a rail hit in the Bhoura patch. The court has clearly directed a stop to all activities on NH-46 through the corridor between Satpura and Melghat,” said Pariwakam, road ecologist, Landscape Research & Conservation Foundation (LRCF).
Talking to TOI, MP PCCF (wildlife) JS Chouhan said, “I don’t contradict that during the visit the complainants must have seen road work being carried out. However, I’ve been told by the CCF, Hoshangabad, that work has been stopped in the Keslaghat corridor. A similar message has been received from CCF, Betul, who said that no work was found during his recent visit to the Bhoura patch.”
“I have already issued written directions to stop work and asked NHAI to follow the Jabalpur high court order of April 1 in letter and spirit,” said Chouhan.
Meanwhile, sources said the petitioner has threatened to file a contempt petition against NHAI and other authorities.
Collared Satpura tigress makes Melghat home
The four-year-old radio-collared tigress that dispersed from Satpura Tiger Reserve (STR) in Madhya Pradesh, and crossed the functional corridor being damaged by NHAI, to reach Melghat Tiger Reserve (MTR) on January 31, 2022, is still in Melghat. As feared, even after four months it has not returned to Satpura. It was spotted by the staff in the Harisal forest range of MTR three days ago. The collar of the tigress has gone defunct. It reached MTR’s Ambabarwa Wildlife Sanctuary in Buldhana district on January 31. It later moved further to the tiger reserve’s tourism zone in Semadoh and is now in Harisal.