Ropeway Projects in Uttarakhand

• 23 Jun 2022

Why in News?

• Kedarnath, Hemkund Sahib and Chandidevi ropeway projects were approved in the 17^th meeting of Uttarakhand State Wildlife Board chaired by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on June 21, 2022.

Key Points

• The meeting approved the approval of these three important ropeway projects as well as the referral of them to the National Wildlife Board.
• In this, Kedarnath is 13 km from Sonprayag. Under the ropeway project, 26.43 hectares of forest land is to be transferred, while about 12.5 km from Govindghat to Hemkund. 27.4782 hectare forest land is to be transferred for ropeway project and 0.29 hectare forest land is to be transferred for ropeway project from Har Ki Pauri to Chandidevi in Haridwar.
• In the meeting, approval was given to transfer 7.20 hectares and 3.4214 hectares of forest land respectively for the construction of operational track from Rocky Nav to Muligala and from Sumama Y Junction to Thangla-II falling under protected forest area in Uttarkashi district.
• The meeting also approved land transfer for four motorways to be constructed under Almora district. A proposal for transfer of forest land to 48.895 hectares for the Ring Road to be constructed in Haridwar and 400.89 hectares for the Jamrani Dam Multipurpose Project will also be sent to the National Wildlife Board after approval.
• At the same time, the proposals for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Power, Hydro, Sub-Mineral Chugan, Industrial Development were approved after discussion.
• It was also decided in the meeting that a Centre of Excellence for Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation and a Centre of Excellence for Wildlife Health Will be set up in the state. Apart from this, primary response teams will be formed in collaboration with local communities, who will work on forest and wildlife conservation as well as prevention of forests.
• Guidelines will be made regarding the behaviour of tourists in tiger reserves, protected areas and other tourist forest areas so that sanitation and waste management can be carried out in a better manner.