Bangalore: While promoters of Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project have got the green signal from the Supreme Court, uncertainty still hangs over a stretch of 77.34 acres of land in the Handigondi reserve forest near Ramanagaram through which the proposed project's expressway will traverse. The State Government is yet to reply to a query by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in December last on whether the Ministry should withdraw permission granted for diversion of forest land for the project. Government sources told The Hindu that the query by the Ministry was forwarded to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in February last for his "remarks and opinion", with reminders sent in July and August.

On the delay in replying to the query, the sources said the State was still studying it and would give "an appropriate reply, but only at an appropriate time". With no reply coming, the Ministry sent a reminder to the State again in October.

In 2002, the State Government received clearance from the Ministry to divert land in the Handigondi forests through which 3.2 km of the expressway is to pass. In its application, the State Government had asserted that no rare or endangered flora or fauna existed in the area. Based on this information, the Ministry accorded its final approval for diversion of forest land for the project in January 2003. However, the same authority said something different in June 2005. While recommending a rejection of "in-principle" approval that had been given by the Ministry for diversion of 10 acres of forest land for carving a 712-foot Sanghamitra Buddha statue from an ancient monolithic rock in the Handigondi forests, the State's Chief Wildlife Warden argued in his report in June 2005 that the area had a variety of flora and fauna, including endangered/ threatened bird and mammal species such as sloth bear, panther, golden jackal, Indian grey hornbill, yellow throated bulbul, buzzard and vulture. The report of the warden noted that the area in question was part of an elephant corridor.

In fact, the Ministry had also recommended that the State declare the Handigondi forests a wildlife sanctuary. The State's opposite stand on the same reserved forest in terms of the BMIC project and the Buddha statue did not go unnoticed by the Ministry. In a letter to the State's Principal Secretary (Forest, Environment and Ecology) in December 2005 the Ministry chastised the State for taking opposite stands. The Ministry asked that it "be informed at the earliest on whether the State Government would also like the Ministry to withdraw the approval granted for diversion of forest land for the BMIC project". For their part, the promoters of the BMIC project, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), are not unduly worried. According to an official with NICE, the required land in the Handigondi forests had been "grubbed by the Forest Department" and only then leased to them. Sources in the Forest Department said the department was well within its rights to decide which project could be allowed in a forest area.

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