A case related to a company in Gujarat, Saurashtra Salt Industries, is coming up at the meeting of the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) in the Union environment ministry at the end of this month, many years after its lease expired and its files remained untouched in the government.
Saurashtra Salt Industries had applied for renewal of a salt lease on 679 hectares of forest land in the Jamnagar district of Gujarat in 2005. However, the case got discussed in the ministry only six years later in 2011, only to get stuck again with concerns raised by the statutory appraisal committee.
Now, it is back on the agenda of FAC for its first meeting in the Narendra Modi government on May 30. It had earlier held back clearance to the company on several grounds, including the need to study the environmental implication of the project, the need for approval from the National Board for Wildlife and a socio-ecological impact of the factory.
The company's lease had been in operation prior to the enactment of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and thereafter, it was renewed till July 2003. The firm applied for retrospective renewal in February 2005, for a period of 20 years.
Records of the environment ministry show that in April 2011, a factory inspection was conducted, after which the FAC discussed the case in August. FAC, in its meeting held on August 26, 2011, noted that since it involved salt production in large tracts of land and the project fell in the vicinity of the Jamnagar Marine National Park, approval of the National Board of Wildlife had to be taken. The proposed site is less than a kilometre from the boundary of the Marine National Park.
According to a Supreme Court ruling, any activity proposed within 10 kilometres of a national park or wildlife sanctuary or inside requires recommendation of the wildlife board, headed by the prime minister.
The FAC observed that salt production from this area would be 75,000-80,000 tonnes per annum. The body had also recommended several measures such as studying the implications of the project from a socio-ecological angle, its impact on the livelihood of the locals and overall biodiversity of the area.
The committee also noted there was a "need to assess the impact of salt panning on the overall biodiversity of the area, including the mangroves that have come up in defunct salt pans." Hence, the committee recommended a need to get the opinion of the impact assessment division of the ministry and coastal regulation zone notification of these projects so that the overall impact of salt manufacture could be gauged.
