Agenda Notes

Contents : Agenda Item No. 1 The Proposal for the Denotification of Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary, Distt. Sirsa . Agenda Item No. 2 Proposal for Environmental clearance from Standing Committee of the National Board of Wildlife in respect of Solid Waste Management Plant to be set up at village Jhuriwala in Panchkula District. Agenda Item No. 3 4 laning of Yamunanagar Panchkula Section of NH 344 (old NH 73) : Proposal for NOC from Wildlife Clearance, Distt. Panchkula from km. 160.240 to 175.300. Agenda Item No. 4 NOC for establishing Petrol Pumps. Agenda Item No. 5 NOC for Plots located in IT Park, Sector-22, Distt. Panchkula, Haryana. Agenda Item No. 6 Issue of NOC for laying Optical Fiber Cable from Telephone Exchange Yamuna Nagar to Paonta (Kaleshwar/Lal Dhang) on NH-73 A. Agenda Item No. 7 Any other item with the permission of the chair.

Agenda Item No. 1 The Proposal for the Denotification of Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary, Distt. Sirsa . History : Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary Distt. Sirsa was notified by State Government vide notification No. S.O. 129/C.A.53/72/S.18/87 dated 27-11-1987, having an area of 28492 acres comprising eleven villages as per following detail:-

District

Tehsil

Village

Actual area of the village

Area notified as Sanctuary In acres 7710 1015 1075 930 2003 5138 1422 1690 4315 1188 2006 28492

In ha. Sirsa Dabwali 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Chautala Teja Khera Assa Khera Bharu Khera Jandwala Bisnoian 6. Ganga 7. Gidar Khera 8. Sukhera Khera 9. Abub Shehar 10.Lakhuana 11.Sakta Khera Total 7710 1015 1075 930 2003 5138 1422 1690

In acres 19052 2508 2655 2297 4949 12695 3513 4176

4371 10799 1188 2936 2030 5016 28572 70596

It is evident from the above table that the intention regarding extent of Sanctuary area was to declare all the area of eleven villages as Wildlife Sanctuary, but inadvertently the area mentioned in notification was shown in
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acres whereas it should have been in hectares. If the area had been in hectares, all the land of these eleven villages would have coincided with the village boundaries of peripheral Sanctuary villages. On account of this typing mistake, instead of whole village area only partial area got notified. This led to uncertainty in identifying the Sanctuary boundaries within the notified villages. Black Buck is the main species found in the area which is being protected due to religious sentiments of local people. The area has a relatively larger proportion of Bishnoi community which has a long history of providing wildlife protection in the area. Need for denotification : In compliance to the Honble Supreme Court order dated 22 -08-1997, the Chief Wildlife Warden, Haryana, requested SDO-cum-Collector, Dabwali, to determine rights in this Wildlife Sanctuary. SDO (Civil) cum- Collector, Dabwali, submitted his report vide letter no. 1011 dated 08-08-1998, whose detail is as follows: A. The Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary is spread over the private area owned and cultivated by private land owners. There are old road passage network, irrigation channels, residential areas including populations, temples, Govt. buildings and electric tubewells in this Wildlife Sanctuary notified area. There is no Govt. compact forest area/ reserve forest area falling under this Sanctuary. B. As per Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the notified area should be acquired, owned and managed by the Govt. In this Sanctuary only road passages and water courses, a very small portion of the notified area is Govt. owned area. So, it is very difficult to determine the rights in this Wildlife Sanctuary area. C. Keeping in view all the circumstances the following points are listed :-

(i)

All the private land owners have their right to irrigate and cultivate their lands and can harvest their crops without harming the wildlife.

(ii)

All the private land owners have the rights to enter in the Sanctuary area without seeking any prior permission from any authority without harming the wildlife.

The Central Empowered Committee (constituted by the Honble Supreme Court of India) issued interim report in I.A. No. 548-1-19/CEC/SC/2004/Pt.IV dated 05-11-2004, for regulation of activities in National Parks/Sanctuaries. As per this interim report, following activities are prohibited in Wildlife Sanctuaries and National Parks:(i) (ii) (iii) felling of trees and their removal; removal of bamboo or grasses for any purpose what so ever; removal of corals and other living forms from marine National Parks/Sanctuaries; (iv) construction of tourist complexes, hotels and restaurants, zoos and safari parks or any other building not for direct use for protection and management of wildlife and its habitat; (v) removal of sand and boulders to any place outside the protected areas for any purpose what so ever; (vi) survey and prospective mining, underground mining including the broken up area. Includes new as well as existing mining leases and Temporary Working Permissions (TWP); (vii) construction or widening of any type of tarred/black topped roads as National Highways, State Highways, District Roads, PWD roads and waterways; (viii) laying of transmission lines, construction of major, medium or minor irrigation projects, Power projects, ports and jetties,

airports, runways, helipads and such other projects;

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(ix) (x) (xi)

laying of industrial pipelines for oil, slurry, water etc; diversion of land for mineral and oil exploration; and dumping of garbage, sewage, waste and discharge of industrial effluents into the Protected Areas.

Generally Sanctuaries are on the Govt. land where all the above conditions have to be enforced. But Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary is in common/private area inhabited largely by Bishnoi community who have a long history of providing wildlife protection in the area. This wildlife Sanctuary was notified to recognize the religious sentiments of the local people in their devotion to wildlife protection. Since total area is privately owned and is full of rights of the people, hence the activities prohibited in this Wildlife Sanctuary are not enforceable till the area is acquired. But acquiring the total land of these 11 villages of this sanctuary is neither feasible nor practicable. As the Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary falls in the common/private land and agricultural land falling therein is currently being cultivated by land owners, therefore in absence of settlement of rights and demarcation of Sanctuary, it is very difficult to implement the provisions of Sanctuary under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 in this area. Similarly, cases dealing with diversion of Sanctuary land for non-forestry purposes are also difficult to handle in the present circumstances. On account of the hardship faced by villagers in managing their agricultural land and initiating development works, the village Panchyats of all the eleven villages have given a resolution to denotify the Sanctuary. Keeping in view the hardship faced by the local people and the administrative difficulty by the wildlife Staff in implementing the provisions of Sanctuary in the area, it is essential and desirable that Abubshehar wildlife Sanctuary spread over in eleven villages may be denotified. The total area of these eleven villages notified as sanctuary is 28492 acres.
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In the 16th meeting of the Haryana State Wildlife Advisory Board held on 18th January, 1999 under the Chairmanship of Sh. Subhash Chaudhary, Honble State Minister for Environment, Wildlife and Co-operation, the Board approved the denotification proposal of Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary. The case of de-notification of Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary, Distt. Sirsa was sent by the Haryana Govt. vide their Endst. No. 5052-Ft.-4-2012/970 dated 22-01-2013 to Govt. of India to approve the case in the meeting of National Board for Wildlife. The case of de-notification of Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary was placed in the meeting of National Board for Wildlife held on 04-09-2013. The members of above meeting observed that this case was recommended by the State Board for Wildlife in 1999, it needs to be re-examined. The main issue raised in this meeting was about the option of alternative; i) the same area may be converted into community reserve, ii) any other forest area in lieu of the sanctuary area, iii) census of black buck and other animals in the area be carried out. As there is no forest area available for declaring it sanctuary, so declaring Abubshehar area as Community Reserve is the only option. Population estimation was carried out and presence of about 500-600 black bucks were estimated. So if approved, accordingly case of de-notification of Abubshehar Sanctuary and its notification as Community Reserve will be sent to Govt. of India. Agenda Item No. 2 Proposal for Environmental clearance from Standing Committee of the National Board of Wildlife in respect of Solid Waste Management Plant to be set up at village Jhuriwala in Panchkula District. History :From the topography of area of District Panchkula it can be seen that District Panchkula is surrounded by Inter-State Boundaries of Union Territory
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of Chandigarh, State of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab on the three sides. The location of the project site has been selected keeping in view the topography of area and its suitability with respect to the least nearest habitation and accessibility. As the major portion of the District falls in the reserve forest and the Wildlife Sanctuary and therefore the location selected is based on the facts that no other suitable site could be selected. It is pertinent to mention that permission for diversion of 5.35 hectare of forest land has been obtained from the Ministry of Environment & Forests under Section-4&5 of the PLPA 1900 under Pinjore Forest Division, District Panchkula and alternative land for compensatory afforestation has been allocated by HUDA in lieu of the forest land acquired for the purpose of establishment of Solid Waste Management Plant. The proposal for establishing the Solid Waste Management Plant has been mooted in view of the interim orders of Honble Supreme Court of India in SLP (C) 22111/2003 wherin it has been directed the State Chief Secretary to ensure that R.O.s/E.O.s and State Pollution Control Board to pro-actively scout for suitable waste management location. In compliance to the directions of the Honble Supreme Court of India the site near Village Jhuriwala was selected. It is submitted that the site is adjacent to the Wildlife Sanctuary. Regular disposal of waste material will affect the ecology and environment which will ultimately have impact on the biodiversity of flora & fauna. The selected site is very close to Wildlife Sanctuary, National Highway, habitation and also in the lowest contours of watershed. In these circumstances many demerits and the issues have already challenged before the Honble Green Tribunal of India. Moreover, there is strong resentment in local people and made very specific complaints regarding the demerits of the site, to this office and MoEF, Govt. of India.

Agenda Item No. 3 4 laning of Yamunanagar Panchkula Section of NH 344 (old NH 73): Proposal for NOC from Wildlife Clearance, Distt. Panchkula from km. 160.240 to 175.300. History : The Project road starts from km. 71.640 & ends at 179.249 km. covering a total length of 108.5 km. and proposed designed length 104.414 km. The road falls in Yamunanagar, Ambala & Panchkula district in the state of Haryana. The land use pattern of the project area is mostly agriculture (50%) protected forest (44%) and built up (6%). The road passes through Khol-HaiRaitan Wildlife Sanctuary from 2.5 km. to 2.910 km. and 4 km. to 4.650 km. However an area of 10 km. on either side need to be considered as per the requirement of Eco Sensitive Zone. As per decision taken in IBWL during the meeting of 14th October 2011, (i) No roads inside the National parks and Sanctuaries should be widened or upgraded. (ii) No widening of existing roads shall be permitted and the status of finishing of the surface of the repaired roads(s) shall remain same as that of the original road(s), i.e., Hence keeping in view the above guidelines it is recommended that (i) Status quo from 2.5 km. to 4.650 km. need to be maintained except maintenance of surface. Construction the protection walls along sides and subways to be are provided for ensuring the protection and movement of wildlife. (ii) From 4.650 km. to 14.650 km. can be considered for up-gradation but with construction of protection wall along sides for avoiding wild animals Road accidents. The subways are also required for smooth to and fro passage of wild animals.
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Agenda Item No. 4 NOC for establishing Petrol Pumps : Following seven proposals for establishment of petrol pumps in Abubshehar Wildlife sanctuary, district Sirsa are received which are as under :(i) Diversion of 0.02521 Ha. of forest land for access to IOCL retail outlet along Chautala Rattanpura road MDR No. 105 KM 2-3 R/side at village Chautala. (ii) Diversion of 0.1251 Ha. of forest land for access to proposed Retail Outlet Dealership at Chautala on Sangaria Bypass Road, District Sirsa, Haryana Under Open Category. (iii) Diversion of 0.1698 Ha. of Wildlife Sanctuary Land for access to HPCL retail Outlet along Dabwali-Sangaria Road MDR No. 105 Km. 12-13 R/side at Village Abubshehar. (iv) Diversion 0.08103 Ha of forest land for access to LOCL retail outlet along Goriwala-Chautala road km 6-7 L/side at village Ganga. (v) Diversion of 0.1308 Ha. of Wildlife Sanctuary Land for access to LOCL retail outlet along Chautala-Rattanpura road Km 3-5 at Village Chautala. (vi) New Retail Outlet at Village Ganga, Khasra No. 293/7/2, 293/8 Khewat No. 1546, Khatoni No. 2451 on Ganga Munnawali Road, Tehsil Dabwali. (vii) Diversion of 0-131644 Ha. Of Forest Land for access to BPCL retail outlet along Dabwali-Hanumangarh Road at Village Chautala km. 3.50 L/side from village Chautala. All these sites fall under the undecided boundaries of Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary. The Abubshehar area was ideal habitat for the Black Bucks and large number of Black Bucks were there in the area. Thus keeping
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in view the sentiments of local community, the intention was to notify whole the area of eleven villages but advertently the area in notification has been notified in Acres instead of Ha. by Govt. of Haryana through the notification No. S.O. 129/C.A.53/72/S.18/87 dated 27th November 1987. Due to this inadvertent error in non-specific area the demarcation of the Sanctuary is not possible. The proposed petrol pump is situated in the periphery of a village notified in Sanctuary. The whole area of Sanctuary is owned by the local people as the right in the Sanctuary land has not been settled. The people have right to cultivate their own lands. No. compact Govt. Forest exist in the Sanctuary area. The establishment of petrol pumps will not add to existing disturbance to the wild animals as the vehicles already present in the area will come to take petrol from this pump. The establishment of the petrol pump will not increase the number of vehicles in the area but will reduce the inconveniences of local people. Hence, above proposals may be considered. Agenda Item No. 5 NOC for Plots located in IT Park, Sector-22, Distt. Panchkula, Haryana. (i) M/s Rajkamal Overseas Pvt. Ltd. have planned IT Park located Plot No. 12, Sector-22, HSIIDC, Panchkula, Haryana. The total plot area is 7575.24 mts. The maximum permissible ground coverage is 40% however proposed and sanctioned is 3000 sq. mts. 39.6%. The total FAR is 2.5 which is equivalent to 18,938 sq. mts. The total sanctioned FAR of our IT Park is 18,634 sq. mts. It is a 7 floor high structure with a terrace level at 33.150 metres above road level and Mumty level at 37.350 meters above road level.

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This site at a distance of 510 mtr. at North side, 355 mtr. at North-East side (Middle) and 405 mtr. at East-North side from Khol-hiRaitan Wildlife Sanctuary. (ii) M/s Rolling Construction Company Pvt. Ltd. have planned IT Park located Plot No. 1, Sector-22, HSIIDC, Panchkula, Haryana The total plot area is 37380 sqr mtr. This site at a distance of 800 mtr. from Khol-hi-Raitan Wildlife Sanctuary. However the prior clearance from the Standing Committee of NBWL is needed for the proposed projects as project site is located within 10 km from the boundary of Khol Hi Raitan (Morni) Wild Life Sanctuary. Agenda Item No. 6 Issue of NOC for laying Optical Fiber Cable from Telephone Exchange Yamuna Nagar to Paonta (Kaleshwar/Lal Dhang) on NH-73 A. History: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (A Govt. of India Enterprise) decided to lay Optical Fiber Cable from Telephone Exchange Yamuna Nagar to Telephone Exchange Paonta via Chhachhrauli and Khizrabad along NH- 73A. The Kalesar National Park fall on this Road from KM 37 to KM 48. To provide better Telecom services(i.e. Broadband, Mobile services etc.) to the public of Paonta Sahib, Yamuna Nagar and villages fall on the route. More over the said route will act as an alternate route for connecting these four states Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Single PLB will be laid in the whole route with 24 Fiber Optical Cable inside the PLB at extreme edge of NH boundary in open area. The Road barm (slope) will be used to lay the cable within the National Park area. No vegetation cleaning and displacement is involved in the execution of work.

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However the prior clearance from the Standing Committee of NBWL is needed for the proposed project as project site is located within 10 km. from the boundary of Khol Hi Raitan (Morni) Wild Life Sanctuary. Agenda Item No. 7 Any other item with the permission of the chair.

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