Environmentalists have expressed issues over the proposed felling of greater than 1.24 lakh timber for a railway challenge in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore and Khargone districts, which goals to enhance the area’s connectivity with Mumbai and the southern components of the nation.
In keeping with officers, the Western Railway is at the moment engaged on the 156-kilometre Mhow-Khandwa gauge conversion challenge, which includes changing the road from a narrow-gauge to a broad-gauge line. The involved forest space falls throughout the Mhow-Sanawad part.
Mhow sub-divisional forest officer (SDO) Kailash Joshi informed The Hindu that the forest, positioned within the 454-hectare space in Mhow and Choral subdivisions, has about 1.4 lakh timber. Of the 454 hectares, about 400 are in Indore district, whereas the remaining fall in Khargone’s Barwaha forest division.
“That is an estimated quantity, as the precise quantity will probably be clear after the continued marking work is full. To this point, we now have marked 35,000 timber in Mhow subdivision,” he stated.
“The proposal has gotten stage-1 clearance from the Union Surroundings Ministry after the advice from the State Environmental Affect Evaluation Authority. We at the moment are getting ready a floor survey report for the realm to find out the influence and related prices. The Railways has to present a compliance report for the ultimate approval from the Centre,” the official, concerned with the proposal, stated on situation of anonymity.
“Stage-1 clearance is conditional and one predominant situation is that the land will stay deemed forest land and the Railways has to plant timber on either side of the challenge,” the official stated, including that the forest division can also be going to get 916 hectares of land in close by Dhar and Jhabua districts.
Compensation
Greater than 9 lakh timber are going to be planted there from the compensation paid by the Railways, he stated. “Aside from planting, the Railways may also pay for the upkeep of the timber for 10 years,” the official added.
The official maintained that the challenge will assist the area join with the western and southern components of the nation. “Primarily, this line will ease connectivity with the Hyderabad and Mumbai areas. Regardless of Indore being an enormous metropolis, the area nonetheless lacks good railway connectivity, and other people need to journey to Ratlam, Bhopal and even Gujarat for prepare journey,” the official added.
Nonetheless, environmental activist and lawyer Abhinav Dhanodkar stated that, regardless of the challenge’s significance, the felling of such a lot of timber may be averted. “The Mhow-Choral forest is among the many most outstanding and dense forests within the area, and the challenge goals to clear most of it. The quantity may be considerably diminished if the railways construct over bridges and extra tunnels. It should improve the price slightly however will certainly save the area’s wildlife,” Mr. Dhanodkar stated, including that the electrical line can also be prone to influence the area’s ecology.
“The forest division is speaking about planting timber elsewhere, however that will not assist this area. And, slicing down full-grown timber and planting saplings will not be the identical,” he stated.
Printed – November 06, 2025 01:30 am IST