Wildlife panel OKs IAF base, other infra in Ladakh sanctuaries near LAC

The clearance for the IAF base was given at a high-level meeting on July 29. The base, which will be located in the  Changthang wildlife sanctuary in eastern Ladakh, will be spread over 508.187 hectares of land, not very far from the LAC.

The NBWL cleared eight Defence projects in the Changthang and Karakoram wildlife sanctuaries as India takes steps to ramp up its defence infrastructure near the LAC to match similar initiatives being taken by China to upgrade its military infrastructure in the area.

The projects were cleared by the Chief Wildlife Warden of Ladakh before being sent to the NBWL for clearance. The

Ministry of Defence will now require environmental clearances, including under the Forest Conservation Act (1980) and Environment Protection Act (1986), as the region falls under Ladakh’s protected cold desert.

The NBWL has also stipulated: “The officers/officials of the wildlife protection department shall have unhindered access to the project site for discharging of their duties.’’

As the government looks to expand and upgrade infrastructure along the LAC,  the standing committee, apart from the creation of an IAF base, has cleared a proposal for the use of 1259.25 ha of land from the Changthang wildlife sanctuary for the Mahe field firing range.

The upgradation of three roads, located in the strategically important region, has also been cleared – 27.5 ha from the Karakoram sanctuary for the double-laning of 22.5 km of the Khalsar-Agham road, 6.875 ha from the Karakoram sanctuary for upgradation of the Leh-Chalunka road and another 107.406 ha from the Changthang sanctuary for the construction of T-Salu Changchemo road in Ladakh.

The NBWL stipulated that animal passages must be implemented and maintained in these stretches.

Environmental clearance has also been given for the laying of optical fibre cables in these two sanctuaries.

Spread over 1600 sq km, the Changthang sanctuary is located on the Tibetan Changthang plateau and has some of the highest altitude lakes including Tso Moriri and is famous for being the home of the snow leopard. The Tibetan wolf, wild yak, bharal, brown bear, mormot, Tibetan wild ass and dark-necked crane are also found in the sanctuary apart from almost 200 species of wild plants.

The Karakoram sanctuary is spread over 5,000 sq km in Leh district and houses the famous Tibetan antelope. This is the first time that the NBWL has looked at proposals from the Ladakh region as the area did not fall under the Wildlife Protection Act prior to the 2019 abrogation of Article 370 for Jammu and Kashmir.