Centre wakes up to Lavasa, asks for eco-clearance details
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Lavasa, modern India’s first planned hill city being built on 25,000 acres of land in Pune district, has come under the scanner of the central Ministry of Environment and Forests
Lavasa, modern India’s first planned hill city being built in Maharashtra’s Pune district, has come under the scanner of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. “I have received representations from people saying that the Lavasa project violated environmental norms. I have sought inquiries about it and wrote to the chief minister asking him to look into the truth of the allegations,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh was quoted as saying on August 19, 2010.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests sent a letter to the Maharashtra government in mid-July pointing out that it had given environment clearance not to the whole project, only to the first phase. It also asked for details about environmental clearances the state had given the project in 2002 and 2004.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said he had not yet got Ramesh’s letter, but would ask for it from his office. However, state government sources said they had already sent the environment ministry an initial reply, pointing out that it had given environment clearance not to the whole project but only to its first phase, on 4,942 acres, in accordance with the norm.
Lavasa Corp, a unit of Hindustan Construction Ltd, claimed it has complied with all environmental norms. The city is coming up in the Western Ghats, on the slopes of hills surrounding the Warasgaon reservoir. It boasts, among other things, villas, luxury apartments and hotels.
The project has been dogged by controversy ever since it was launched in 2001. Critics, including local farmers, activists and non-profit groups led by activist Medha Patkar, say it will cause large-scale ecological damage to the Western Ghats. They have questioned the speed at which the state government cleared the project.
According to the state environment committee’s minutes, the government modified Pune region’s zoning rules on May 31, 2001. The very next day, the government declared an area occupied by 18 villages a hill station, following which Lavasa started buying land in the area.
In September 2002, Lavasa applied for environmental clearance to the state government and got provisional clearance in three months, by December of the same year. The government gave it final clearance in March 2004.
Source: The Hindustan Times, August 20, 2010
Reuters, August 20, 2010