Govt fails to conduct study mandatory for dev works, unutilised funds re-appropriated

MIR FARHAT

SRINAGAR: Contrary to the essential requirement, the state government's Department of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing (DEERS) has failed to conduct mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on major tourism destinations, vital water bodies even as huge infrastructure development has been undertaken since decades.
As per officials and different department wings of the DEERS, it has not conducted environment impact assessment studies conducted on tourism places, Tourist Development Authorities including Pahalgam Development Authority, Gulmarg Development Authority, Yusmarg Development Authority, Doodhpathri Development Authority, water bodies including Dal lake, Wullar lake, Hokersar, Aanchar, Shalbug, mansbal, Rakhi Malgam, High Altitude lakes and on major rivers of the valley.
The official details reveal that the government has allotted funds to the department but it has not utilized the funds for EIA studies and re-appropriated the funds back to the government.
Tahir Pandit, an environment scholar in Kashmir, said that EIA studies are formal process done by environment experts and scientists to predict environmental consequences and potential problems of any development project carried out at place. And such studies ensure that the problems are addressed at an early stage in the projects' planning and design.
Pandit said that EIA study focus to identify positive and negative impacts and to ensure that development is sustained with minimal environmental degradation.
"The purpose of the identification of the negative impacts is to formulate the suitable mitigation measures in order to acquire the prior environmental clearance (EC)," he said.
He said that conducting EIA is mandatory before development of infrastructure or any other related activity to assess impact of environment.
Contrary to this essential requirement, the DEERS, which is a government department, mandated to study EIA of development projects carried out across the state has failed to carry out a single study.
"No Environment Impact Assessment study has so far been conducted by this office since reactivation of EIA Division in 2016," DEERS said in reply to an RTI filed by the JK RTI Movement.
The department said "Office record got damaged in September floods in 2014."
The state has 24 Tourism Development Authorities to develop and build selected tourism sites vis-a-vis infrastructure and facilities for tourists.
The major TDAs include Pahalgam, Sonamarg, Gulmarg, Wullar-Manasbal, Kokernag, Aharbal, Veerinag, Doodhpathri, Lolab Bangus, Poonch, Baderwah, Patnitop, Surinsar-Mansar, Rajouri, Kishtwar, Lakhanpur-Sarthal, Leh, Kargil and Zanskar.
As per guidelines, each Development Authority must have a Master Plan for sustainable and planned development of these areas while raising infrastructure for tourism promotion.
However, the official records of DEERS reveal that it has not conducted EIA of these places.
On January 10, Minister for Tourism, Tassaduq Mufti while holding his maiden review meeting of Tourism Department stressed upon the department officers to incorporate environmental impact assessments, surveys and research as regular features in tourism policy to raise modern infrastructure coincident with the historical legacies and natural endowments of the state.
Mufti insisted to frame respective master plans and vision documents incorporating tourist attractions based on resource potential, regional cultural identity, heritage architecture, road connectivity and access to derive socio-economic benefits while ensuring environmental preservation.