feeds from sacw.net
print versionInfrastructure is considered the backbone of any economy. The impetus on infrastructure sector becomes much more in a growing economy, with the government terming investment in infrastructure “quintessential” to boost growth as highlighted in Economic Survey 2020-21. This can also be observed in several of the government’s policies and programmes in giving a push to this sector such as the ambitious National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) announced in 2019, which would need a projected investment of Rs. 111 lakh crore for carrying out the infrastructure projects between 2020 and 2025. The infrastructure projects which have come up across the country in the last few decades, along with extractive projects such as mining projects, have also encroached the forests and green cover which have been under ever increasing threat due to the pressure to make way for the infrastructure and mining projects at the cost of biodiversity and environment. Not just the forest areas have been diverted for non-forestry purposes, but even the protected areas such as tiger reserves have come under threat due to the “inevitability” of the infrastructure projects, which is often cited as the reason for giving a go ahead by the various ministries of governments including environment ministry.
The impact of infrastructure projects and resource extraction projects has not just been on the forest cover or the wildlife, but it has also affected the communities dependent on forests which have had a symbiotic relationship with the forests since centuries and who have also played a key role in protecting these forests. Forests and green cover include Scheduled V and VI forests and those outside this category, green cover in urban areas, fragmented patches of green cover, mangrove forests, rivers, wildlife habitats, protected areas/reserve areas, Ramsar sites, critical habitats, “empty” forests, lands used for industrial agriculture, etc. [ . . . ]
