Navi Mumbai airport plan faces a new challenge as Wildlife board refuses approval on account of ‘bird threat’
The ambitious Navi Mumbai airport project is in the news again with a new hurdle. An environment ministry’s wildlife specialist committee has refused to approve the airport project on the ground of ‘bird threat’. The proposed airport is in close proximity to Karnala bird sanctuary and this is the major concern of the Wildlife board.
Although, the CIDCO has clarified that there is no bird threat since the proposed airport is about 10 kms away from Karnala, the local ecologists and Maharashtra chief wildlife warden differed.
According to the CIDCO, the speed of aircrafts would be slow while landing and take-off; hence there would not be any impact on the habitat of birds.
However, Gebi Goenka, a Mumbai-based ecologist, believes that the impact of the airport transcends beyond Karnala. Accordingly to Goenka, the three sides of the airport are surrounded by bird habitats and therefore the safety of the passengers is also at stake. He confirmed that the proposed airport plan was approved without taking this into consideration, which is a gross violation.
Two years back, City and Industrial Development Corporation had received an environmental clearance from the ministry. However, the corporation did not reveal that there is a 12.11 sq km bird sanctuary within 10 kms of the airport boundary. It is mandatory for any project to get a wildlife approval in such cases. Goenka wants the CIDCO to get a wildlife approval now.
The proposed airport is expected to handle around 40 million people in a day by 2030. It is scheduled to be built by 2017.
