The NEA has to plant 25 plants for each tree felled or plant yanked out during the construction of the transmission lines or sub-stations at the places provided by the government, community or private forests wherever construction is done as per the Directives for Forest 2006. [break]
The NEA has to hand over the plants in a living state to the forests concerned after five years and also have to pay rent for the land it has used for construction of transmission lines and sub-stations.
But the letter issued around three weeks ago has demanded that NEA should itself procure land for planting the substitute plants and hand over the land to the forests concerned along with the plants five years later. "We have received the letter three weeks ago that says the land needs to be procured for substitute plantation," said chief of the transmission section at the NEA Ram Chandra Pandey.
Pandey said the NEA would face great difficulty in constructing transmission lines and sub-stations if the agreement with the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation were to change. "Apart from the financial burden of procuring the land for plantation, we will also face hassles in reaching agreement to procure with community and private forests," said Project Chief of the Khimti-Dhalkebar 220KV Transmission Line Kanhaiya Manandhar, who, however, said he was not aware about the letter.
The content of the letter is on such unexpected lines that Manandhar insisted that it cannot be true. "It will be practically next to impossible to complete construction of transmission lines and sub-stations in the future," Manandhar claimed. "They cannot ask us to procure land for plantation and still charge us for lease of the land used for construction like they do now," Manandhar argued about the fairness of the proposal.
Deputy Project Head at the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation Shiva Sapkota, who deals with the NEA about the agreement, confirmed that the ministry wrote to the NEA. "We wrote to the NEA as per the directives by the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Means on October 10," Sapkota claimed.
But Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Means Ram Sharan Ghimire claimed that the committee has not directed the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation to ask the NEA to procure land to be used for planting substitute plants. "We have taken decision to not provide forest land for squatters, temples, schools and colleges at any cost. But we cannot go against development and there is exemption for hydro-projects and roads," Ghimire claimed. "We have advised the government to provide land for substitute plantation in case of hydro-projects and roads," Ghimire added.
The NEA has not calculated the additional burden it will have to incur if the new regulations came into effect as it has not been enforced yet. But it looks to be enormous if the current figures are taken.
Manandhar revealed that a total of 25,000 plants in 106 hectare of forest land at several points were cut during the construction of 75-km Khimti-Dhalkebar Transmission Line. The NEA has to procure the land to plant 625,000 plants for this single project if the previous agreement were to be replaced by the proposed one.
But the new rule is not likely to be immediately enforced as a team has been formed around six weeks ago for reform of the guidelines to provide forest land for other purposes and the team has yet to complete its work. "The decision about the agreement with NEA will not be taken until the team completes its work," Deputy Project Head at the Ministry of Forest Sapkota, who is also in the team, said. The team has been given three months to complete the task.
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