The Union Environment Ministry’s expert appraisal committee has objected to West Bengal’s Super Critical Imported Coal Based Thermal Power Plant at Nayachar Island, saying that it stands on ecologically fragile ground. For the Mamata Banerjee government, the objection to this project near Haldia in East Medinipur district brings bigger worries because West Bengal has announced plans to set up an industrial park and an eco-tourism hub in the same region. Following a site inspection, a sub-group of the appraisal committee found that the location is a tidal estuarine island which is vulnerable to erosion from tidal waves. Also, there appeared to be mangroves in the vicinity, which was earlier not included in the report about the location. The sub-group, headed by ecologist CR Babu, formulated a detailed report outlining the environmental contentions and submitted it to the appraisal committee. The committee has now given the project proponents a chance to counter the report based on technical facts. “The site is unsuitable for the plant. Although we were always reluctant to give the project proponents terms of reference for a preliminary study, it was more or less clear that the site has a fragile ecosystem,” said a committee member. The 1320 MW power plant, with plans to go up to 1980 MW, was conceived in 2008 and involves a massive investment of up to Rs 12,000 crore. Being completely based on imported coal from Indonesia and Australia, and with plans to export the entire flyash of the plant to Bangladesh, the project was considered one of its kind, one that was pegged as a major leap for West Bengal’s power generation capacity. “The committee noted that the island where the power project is being proposed appears to have a unique and fragile ecology with no habitation and felt that these important issues were inadvertently missed out while prescribing the terms of reference,” said the minutes of appraisal committee meeting.