MoEF: Nayachar island ‘not suitable’ for thermal plant

The state government had started taking fresh interest in the island after the Centre lifted its moratorium – placed because of high levels of pollution – on any activity that involved setting up of industries at Haldia and the areas surrounding it.

The report,however,does give a green signal for the island to be used for ecotourism purposes and the existing fishery projects.

“The Nayachar island should be left as such so that it serves as a natural laboratory for understanding the ecology of mangrove succession which is little understood. At best,the island can be used for promoting ecotourism and restoration of existing aquaculture farms without major alterations or ecological damage,’’ the report reads.

It was in 2008 that a private sector unit (Universal Crescent Power) first sent a proposal to the state government regarding the setting up of a coal-based thermal plant at Nayachar island opposite the Haldia port. An MoU was signed between the two.

The company then approached the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest for clearance in July 2010,but the matter was deferred on the ground that the MoEF had already declared the site as “critically polluted” and therefore no industry could be allowed.

Advocate Kausik Chanda said a PIL,by the Nayachar’s fishermen association,was moved last year in the Calcutta High Court challenging the state government’s decision to set up a power plant there. The case,which is still pending,was taken up by the National Green Tribunal.

Following the recent report,an appraisal committee of experts under the MoEF accordingly informed the private firm to relocate its power project from Nayachar to elsewhere.

The Dolphin-shaped Nayachar Island is 15.8 km long and 4.5 km wide and is located in the Hoogly river system opposite the Haldia port.

Formed by the siltation process over a period of sixty years,the island faces a continued threat of land degradation. The island,which did not have inhabitants until 1980,is now home to about 400 families,with over 3,50,000 seedlings of 10 species of mangroves.