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

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

Subject: Geography

Section: The standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has cleared the setting up of a new IAF base in Ladakh where Indian and Chinese troops have been facing off along the Line of Actual Control since May 2020.

• 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.

Concept:

Changthang sanctuary

• 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 (IUCN: Endangered), wild yak(IUCN: Vulnerable), bharal (IUCN: Least Concern), brown bear(IUCN : Critically endangered), mormot (IUCN: Least Concern), Tibetan wild ass(IUCN: Least Concern) and dark-necked crane(IUCN : Near Threatened, only found here , Ladakh’s state animal) are also found in the sanctuary apart from almost 200 species of wild plants.

Karakoram sanctuary

• The Karakoram sanctuary is spread over 5,000 sq km in Leh district and houses the famous Tibetan antelope or Chiru(IUCN : Near Threatened)(known for Shahtoosh). 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

National Board for Wildlife (NBWL)

• National Board for Wildlife is a statutory Board constituted officially in 2003 under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
• The NBWL is chaired by the Prime Minister and is responsible for promotion of conservation and development of wildlife and forests.
• The board is ‘advisory’ in nature and can only advise the Government on policy making for conservation of wildlife.
• It is an important body because it serves as an apex body for the review of all wildlife-related matters and for the approval of projects in and around national parks and sanctuaries.
• The standing committee of NBWL is chaired by the Minister of Environment Forest and Climate Change.
  • The standing committee approves all the projects falling within protected wildlife areas or within 10 km of them.