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$2.77 Billion: A Hidden Cost of Fourlane National Highway in Himalayas


Virat Jolli: State Government of Himachal Pradesh may have started the land acquisition for the proposed 219 km Pathankot-Mandi  fourlane highway project. The proposed project expected to increase the accessibility and ease of traveling via road in Himachal Pradesh. The project will shorten the distance between Pathankot and Mandi  benefiting the people of Himachal Pradesh. Further it will boost the economic trade activity in the Himalayan State. 
Pathankot-Manali Road, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India

The proposed project will pass through reserved forests of HP and therefore requires permission from the MoEFCC which is cleared by the said authority. According to the DPR prepared by Joint Ventures and Infrastructure Casta the project is estimated to cost Rs 8000 crore for which tender will be floated by NHAI (Tribune, 2018). The current estimated cost does not account for the loss incurred by construction of such highway in its true sense.

I will present a simple analysis which further throw light on this issue.

A : The total area for 219 km 4 lane road of 23.5 m wide is = 514.65 hectares (As per Indian Road Congress)

B : The existing road is two lane with a varying width for our convenience lets consider it as a constant of 7 m width which accounts for 153.3 hec

So, the total area of land that would be acquired will be (A-B) =  (514.65-153.3) = 361.35 hec 

As per published information number of tree/hectare of land with a spacing of 3 m would be  1111 (FAO, 2018).
Keeping in view the Himalayan topography we assume 1000 tree/hec

Estimated Number of Trees that need to be cut down  = 361,350

The value of tree need to be taken into account if we are serious about environment protection.
As per an estimate a tree yield 260 pounds of Oxygen/year. A total price of $7670

 (Considering the current price of 2.2 kg Oxygen cylinder which cost approx $143)

Therefore, the price of oxygen produced by 361,350 trees will be approximately $2.77 billion (Rs 194 billion)

This a tip of an iceberg if we consider other ecoservices of trees.

Himalayan trees are important in maintaining ecosystem balance of Himalayas. It is well known fact that Himalayas are fragile ecosystem and removing lakhs of trees will have serious ramifications like land use change, fragmentation, increase in disturbance and habitat fragmentation. The National Biodiversity Target of Government of India which says:
National Biodiversity Target 3Strategies for reducing rate of degradation, fragmentation and loss of all natural habitats are finalized and actions put in place by 2020 for environmental amelioration and human well-being.


However, the current project seems to be contradictory in nature in terms of achieving national biodiversity target. During my field surveys in towns of HP, variety of birds nest and forage along the roadside vegetation and its clearing will affect their habitat. Moreover, road expansion in mountains will further increase the incidence of landslides in the region. and therefore, before implementing any such project Government should consider the true value (ecoservices of trees) for calculating the cost of project.

Landslide at NH 21 Manali Kullu Highway

References
Tribune, 2018. http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/himachal/land-acquisition-for-pathankot-to-mandi-4-lane-project-from-april/523619.html

FAO, 2018. http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0122e/t0122e08.htm

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