Kathmandu– Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoFE) has endorsed the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of proposed Nigad International Airport.
The endorsement of EIA report has paved the way for taking ahead the process of airport construction. The construction of airport itself is good and encouraging news. At the same time, there are profound concerns about proposed airport’s costly impact on the environment and people.
As per EIA report endorsed by Ministry, around 2.4 million trees are expected to be cut down for the construction of airport. Around 61 crore new plants will have to be planted as a compensation of removed plants. It requires huge amount of money to plant the trees. Similarly, it is not an easy task to find the open spaces to plant new trees. According to report, 38294 hectares of land is required to plant the trees.
Chandra Man Dangol, Joint Secretary at MOFEE informed that Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation will provide the budget to plant new trees in Bara district. “Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation will provide the required budget to plant and grow up them at some point,” he said. There has not been concrete agreement about the detail budgets and plans. If there are not sufficient lands in the districts, trees could be planted in adjoining districts.
“We will not be allowed to plant trees in private jungles we will plant in the banks of rivers and in other open areas,” Dangol said. A total of 8045.79 hectare land has been allocated for the construction of airport, out of them 7969.37 land is covered by forest. The remaining land is occupied by squatters and 9 hector is privately owned. Around 1500 houses will have to be relocated for the construction of airport.
The report says that airport lies in the dense forest. The area is rich in biodiversity and there are more 23 species of wildlife and more than five hundred 23 species of birds.
Senior Executive Director of WWF-Nepal Santosh Mani Nepal said that this area is rich in terms of biodiversity and it is a corridor of Elephant. The report has stated that these projects could invite air pollution, noise pollution and other several environmental impacts. The stone, sand and other construction materials needed for the airport construction will be extracted from the Lal Bakaiya river.
Nepal Army has already been entrusted with the responsibility to cut down the trees and it would take at least two years. The government plans to complete the airport project within the next five years.
According to Budhi Sagar Lamichanne, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Culture and Civil Aviation, the endorsement of EIA has kick started the process of cutting the trees.
