The ecological implications of the expressway as perceived by and expressed to WII team during the site visit are summarised below. The expressway being an access controlled facility, would result not only in the severance of existing societal relationships with local ecology, but, would also lead to modifications in landscape features, habitat size, quality and contiguity and also the resultant variations in ecological and biological parameters of species inhabiting the diverse habitats in different landscapes. In order to draw any conclusions of the possible ecological implications of the project, the following facts about the site (ecological) environment need to be stated.

i. The expressway alignment would transgress three different landscape features (a) Coastal plains (b) Western Ghats (c) Deccan plateau, each being a specialised ecosystem of great ecological significance for the conservation of the biodiversity in its entire tract.

ii. The coastal plains support a vegetation mosaic that is characteristic of coastal habitats supporting diverse aquatic fauna.

iii. The multilayered Tropical Forests of Western Ghats (Biogeographic Zone 5 and Biogeographic Province 5B) are one of the richest and most diverse ecosytems of the world that are unique in their tremendous potential to support very rich floral and faunal diversity particularly of plants, birds and herpetofauna of which a significant proportion of species are also endemic.

iv. The Deccan plateau Reserved Forests support an ecosystem unique to Maharashtra (Rodgers & Panwar, 1988) and offers a suitable habitat to large and small mammals of grasslands and scrublands.

v. The proposed alignment also traverses the bed of Lonavale lake, a major water body supporting aquatic ecosystems that are already being impacted by frequent modifications in water level resulting from abstraction of water for domestic water supply to the Lonavale township.

vi. The proposed Father Santapau Sanctuary lies within the loop of the expressway south west of Khandala township.

vii. The existing settlements, agriculture and grazing will continue to remain dominant land use practices in the areas beyond the Right of Way (RoW) of expressway in certain stretches.

It became evident from the views expressed in the series of discussion with the representatives of the scientific bodies and environmental NGO’s that the anticipated modifications in the ecological environment of the proposed area and the perceived threats to the conservation values can be linked in several ways viz.

i. Land take, clear felling, deforestation and fragmentation are the activities associated with the construction phase of the project that have direct bearing on habitat size and characteristics which in turn are likely to affect the survival of floral and faunal species, unique to habitats en route the proposed alignment of expressway. The forests in the section of the Western Ghats that would have an expressway alignment are a home to several birds of prey such as Black Eagle, Eastern Steppe Eagle, Crested Serpent Eagle and the Crested Hawk Eagle. These specialised hill forests are also the habitat and the migratory routes for a variety of birds such as thrushes, fly catchers, wood peckers, bulbuls etc. A population of mammalian species represented by leopards, lesser cats, canids, sambar, barking deer, mouse deer and Malabar giant squirrel use the contiguous tracts of these dense forests with closed canopy. Fragmentation is perceived as a major threat to the contiguity of the wildlife habitats of species listed above of which the mouse deer and giant squirrel are perceived to be more threatened both by loss of specialised habitats and their already endangered status.

ii. ( Loss of critically important tall trees which are preferred as nesting sites by large number of birds of prey which will be cut down is perceived as a major threat to the breeding biology of birds.

iii. The wide expanse of forest clearing required would form a major deterrent to wildlife movements. The area lying between NH-4 and the alignment would become an isolated forest patch of limited habitat potential.

iv. The expressway route is likely to result in the bisection of the proposed Fr. Santapau Wildlife Sanctuary which is an extremely rich repository of wild trees, shrubs, and climbers.

v. Replacement of a wildlife corridor by a expressway corridor is expected to lead to several induced developments (recreational and commercial establishments) that will further threaten the potential of remaining habitats due to increased biotic disturbances.

vi. The sealed expressway is expected to completely remove the local people from the resource areas except through underpasses or overbridges. This is likely to create scarcity of fodder promoted by inaccessability of grazing grounds to the shepherd community (Dangars). Deprivation of agropastoral communities dependent on the adjacent forests for leaves and branches and fuel wood, wood ash and crop residue for fuel resources is likely to be a major social impact of the project.