Kaleshwaram gets forest clearance

HYDERABAD: The forest advisory committee of the Union ministry of environment and forests has given forest clearance for the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project. The minutes of the committee meeting held on September 21 became available on Tuesday.

According to the minutes, the committee allowed diversion of 258.028 hectares of forest land in the reserve forest of Karimnagar east forest division for laying of pipelines/construction of eight tanks/canals and distributories in Mancherial area as part of the project.  “The FAC accepted the compliance report and recommended stage-2 approval of the proposal,” the minutes said. They also said since 31 hectares of land has been used in violation of guidelines, double that extent of forest area will be identified for carrying out penal compensatory afforestation (CA).