National Tiger Conservation Authority Report on tiger corridors in Maharashtra, 15/04/2020
Report by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to the National Green Tribunal in Original Application No. 1030/2018 on the news item published in The Times of India and authored by Vijay Pinjarkar titled "String of new road projects in Maha to cut off tiger corridors."
It was said that there was obstruction of tiger corridors by new road projects by the state and the Ministry of Road Transport (MoRTH). It was reported that the necessary steps and precautions in such road projects for protection of environment and wildlife were lacking.
The NGT in its order of January 6, 2020 had directed the Additional Director General Forest (Wildlife), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), to submit a modified action plan to make sure that the "period extending upto seven years in five phases as proposed needs to be reduced to maximum of three years," for executing all the mitigation measures on the different road stretches of the tiger corridors.
The NTCA/MoEF&CC submitted the Modified Action Plan (for a period of three years) prescribing structural and non-structural mitigations measures. The measures proposed include regulation of traffic, speed reduction measures, signboards indicating presence of animals, monitoring of vulnerable road sections and verge management among others.
Note: The report was uploaded to the NGT site on July 3, 2020