Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) process of rural road from Jhakol to Lawari in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and its effeciency to assess the impact on wildlife and forests
Student name: Ms Divya Dixit
Guide: Dr Sudipta Chatterjee
Year of completion: 2015
Host Organisation: Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education, Dehradun
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr V Jeeva
Abstract: Connectivity or accessibility is the backbone of the whole economy hence for the development. When the agenda of rural development comes in the limelight roads automatically becomes centre of discussion as being the primary sector, it is most important for the villages to be well connected. The Government of India initiated a program in the year 2000 solely for rural road development, popularly known as the Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana Programme (PMGSY), with the objective of connecting all villages having populations over 500 by the end of 2007. It is an ADB funded project so ADB formulates the guidelines for the project according, Indian Government formulates their guidelines in a way so as to synchronize with the ADB guidelines. Though a small scale project, rural road does have impact on forests and wildlife, as they tend to pass through the peripheral forests. Assessing the impact using Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a tool is a common practice, but being a minor project an Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) is carried out for PMGSY projects.
Being a brief assessment IEE, how much viable is it to perform proper assessment of environmental impacts with checklist as a tool and how efficiently can the engineers handle it in order to bring out the best of the tool, forms the basis of this study . The present study deals with the case study of Govind Pashu Vihar, which has a project under PMGSY scheduled to be completed but being a protected area it calls for a detailed EIA for assessment but a continued IEE reflects a gap in implementation of guidelines. The survey opinions of experts and engineers suggest that IEE is not suited for an ecologically sensitive area and does not fair in assessing the biodiversity well.
Key words: Rural roads, EIA, IEE, Govind Pashu Vihar, PMGSY
