The following features of the pipeline route ensure compliance with statutory regulations of the Ministry of Environment, Govt. of India to some extent.

(i) The proposed pipeline does not traverse through any National Park/Wildlife Sanctuary and no protected area lies in the immediate vicinity of the proposed route of the pipeline.

(ii) The proposed pipeline is not aligned through any Reserved or Protected Forest areas.

The fact that most wildlife species and habitats are located outside protected areas (Rodgers and Panwar, 1988) entrust wildlife managers with the responsibility to protect these wildlife habitats and species for conservation of natural resources and biodiversity. The environmental guidelines issued by the Department of Environment (DOE), Govt. of India have further strengthened the need for the conservation of biological values of ecologically and or otherwise sensitive areas (DOE, 1984). These guidelines lay down the directives to take all necessary measures to minimise the adverse impact of industries on the natural life sustaining systems and some specific landuses that are sensitive to impacts because of their nature and extent of fragility.

During the course of field work for the present EIA study several such areas (rivers and marshes) of ecological interest have been identified enroute the proposed pipeline project.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the study of these areas we draw the following conclusions-

1. The pipeline traverses through important aquatic wildlife habitats.

2. Major aquatic habitats include rivers such as Ganges, Rupnarayan, Harohar and Damodar and some marshlands of West Bengal.

3. The faunal species of conservation significance likely to be impacted upon by proposed project are Gangetic river dolphin, turtles, (Narrow headed soft shelled turtle and Indian soft shelled turtle) and water fowl particularly Baer's pochard.

4. Of these, the Gangetic river dolphin and the Indian soft shelled turtle are listed in scheduled I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act and the Baer's pochard is listed in Red Data Book V.

5. The construction activities for the proposed pipeline project are likely to impact upon marshland areas of Dakshinpur, Barnandanpur, Dharampur and Jothkanurangod which are important migratory waterfowl habitats during winter.

Table 5.1 Evaluation of the impacts on the proposed pipeline on wildlife values of the major rivers.

HDD – Horizontal Directional Drilling; OCM – Open Cut Method
Refer text and Tables 3.6 and 3.7 for score rating

RECOMMENDATIONS

The present network of Protected Areas (PAs) in India do not provide adequate attention to riverine habitat and its obligate species. The Gangetic river dolphin population outside PAs may be higher than that of the population within (Choudhury and Hussain, 1993). The future survival of dolphins depend on the protection of riverine habitats in Ganges and tributaries. Therefore all Gangetic river dolphin habitats enroute the proposed pipeline will have to be ensured protection during the implementation of the above project.

We recommend the following mitigatory measures for impacts on the Gangetic dolphin and their habitat.
1. Horizontal Direction Drilling (HDD) should be employed for laying the pipeline across the river Ganges to prevent any detrimental effects of water flow obstruction on the Gangetic dolphin ecology.

2. Since Rupnarayan river is also an important habitat for long term conservation of Gangetic river dolphin, Horizontal Direction Drilling (HDD) should also be employed for laying the pipeline across this river.

3. No construction related activities should be undertaken on the above rivers during the breeding (April - May) and calving (December - January) seasons of the Gangetic river dolphin.

4. Construction phase activities on Harohar river should be undertaken only during the period between March to October to avoid disturbance to Baer's pochard during winter (November - February).

5. Some protection to fast dwindling wildlife values of Damodar river can be afforded by avoiding disturbance during monsoon (April - June) and post monsoon (September - January) season.

6. No construction activities should be undertaken in Marshlands of Dakshinpur, Barnandanpur, Dharampur and Jothkanurangod during November to February to avoid disturbance to long distance migratory waterfowl.