Felling for Karjat pumped storage project paused after tribal villages protest
Maharashtra's forest department has temporarily stopped felling trees on Saidongar Hill in Karjat for a proposed 3,000-MW pumped storage project after five tribal villages protested. Over 1,000 of the 32,400 trees marked had been cut. Villagers, mostly Katkari, say they were never told and do not know whether the halt is official.
Syllabus: Prelims · Environment & Ecology; GS3 · Infrastructure; GS2 · Welfare of Vulnerable Sections
Why this matters for UPSC
GS3 environment and energy: diverting forest land for a pumped storage project. Prelims can ask the 2023 forest amendment and Gram Sabha powers; Mains, clean energy against forest rights.
Why it matters
For a Katkari family in Pali, the forest on Saidongar Hill is where wood for the market, food for the home and medicinal plants such as giloy come from. Cutting it takes away that living long before any new plantation grows. The hill also lies close to the Bhimashankar forest and shelters the Indian giant squirrel, so the loss is ecological as well. At the same time, India needs storage to keep power flowing after sunset on solar parks, and hilly sites suit pumped storage. When villagers first learn of a project from the sound of chainsaws, trust breaks, work stops and a clean-energy plan is delayed for everyone.
Prelims pointers
- Land is a State subject: a State decides on leasing forest land, but using it for non-forestry purposes needs the Central Government's prior approval.
- Since 2023 the forest law also covers land recorded as forest in a Government record on or after 25 October 1980, not only notified forest.
- Exempt from the 2023 law: forest land within 100 km of international borders, the Line of Control or the Line of Actual Control for strategic linear projects.
- The Van Adhiniyam controls diverting forest land to other uses; the Forest Rights Act, 2006 recognises forest dwellers' individual and community rights on that land.
- Under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, the Gram Sabha receives and verifies claims, maps them and sends its resolution to the Sub-Divisional Level Committee.
- The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change appraises pumped storage projects under the B2 category, subject to conditions (May 2023 notification).
- Inter-State Transmission System charges are waived for pumped storage projects whose construction is awarded on or before 30 June 2028.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, consider the following statements:
1. The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 gave the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 this new name.
2. The amended law covers land recorded as forest in a Government record on or after 25 October 1980.
3. The amended law exempts forest land within 50 km of international borders for strategic linear projects.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer
Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only
Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only. The 2023 amendment renamed the law and widened it to recorded forest, but the border exemption runs to 100 km.
Statement 1: correct. The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 substituted the name Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam for the 1980 Act.
Statement 2: correct. Besides land notified as forest under the Indian Forest Act, 1927 or another law, the Act covers land recorded as forest in a Government record on or after 25 October 1980.
Statement 3: incorrect. The exemption is for forest land within 100 km of international borders, the Line of Control or the Line of Actual Control, for strategic linear projects of national importance.
Eliminate: Statement 3 gives 50 km where the Act says 100 km. Out: (b), (c), (d).
Trap: Near-miss figure. The border distance is halved so that a student who recalls only that a border exemption exists marks the statement correct.
Remember: Border exemption: 100 km, strategic linear projects; recorded forest counted from 25 October 1980.
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