KARACHI, June 29: A food company has been “requested” by the Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD) to halt work on a proposed dairy farm, since it is located in a protected area where such activities are strictly restricted and require a specialised assessment on environmental impact, Dawn has learnt.
The model Engro Dairy Farm is being established in Deh Gandahoo, taluka Salehpat, Nara Game Reserve in Sukker district, which is protected under the Sindh Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1972. The Federal Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, Syed Khursheed Shah, was the chief guest at the farm’s ground-breaking ceremony, held on May 25 at the site of the Engro Foods Limited Plant in Rohri.
Engro Foods Ltd. submitted a preliminary environmental impact assessment to the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency but this does not meet the legal requirements for a protected area. When contacted by Dawn, a spokesperson said that the company had been unaware that the chosen site required a more specialised impact assessment study. Sepa, on its part, gave an immediate approval without checking whether the site fell within a protected area.
The environmental protection laws require an Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) to be carried out before any industry or commercial concern is established anywhere, unless the site falls within a protected or ecologically sensitive area. In this case, the more specialised Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is necessary. These studies, the IEE or EIA depending on the site of the project, must be submitted with Sepa for obtaining the approval or no-objection certificate that are required before work may be initiated on the site.
Reliable sources informed Dawn that Engro Foods Ltd. submitted an IEE report with Sepa without informing the environmental protection agency that the project site was within a protected area.
Meanwhile, they said, Sepa gave immediate approval to the company to carry out the work and failed to check whether the project area fell within a protected area.
The sources further explained that the IEE was conducted by a company that is owned by a close relative of a person with a long-term association with Sepa, and also provides technical assistance to the organisation regulating environmental laws. “The influence of the company that carried out the IEE can be gauged from the fact that the IEE report was submitted, ‘carefully reviewed’, and the approval was accorded the same day by Sepa’s non-technical director-general, Ali Ahmed Lund,” they pointed out.
When contacted by Dawn in this regard, Sepa director Naeem Mughal conceded that it was unusual for an IEE to obtain approval within a day, and added that for sites within protected areas, neither the IEE nor its subsequent approval held any legal status.
SWD office informed company rep of site status
In a communication referencing the “establishment of model dairy farm at Gandahoo in Nara Game Reserve, district Sukker” as the subject, SWD deputy conservator Hussain Bakhsh Bhaagat put the following points before Mohammed Saeed of Engro Foods Limited:
“It has come to the note of this office that Engro Foods Limited is going to establish ‘Engro Model Dairy farm’ in deh Gandahoo, taluka Salehpat, district Sukker, whose groundbreaking ceremony was held on May 25, 2008.
“In this regard, the Manager Human Resources and Administration, and yourself, were informed in person during your visit to my office that the dairy farm project area lies within the Nara Game Reserve, a protected area declared under the Sindh Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1972.
“According to the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act and the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency Act 2000, the EIA is a regulatory requirement before initiating any development activity in any protected area. You also provided the copy of the NOC for the IEE for this project, which is not valid for working in a protected area.
“You are therefore requested to please immediately stop the development / construction work of the dairy farm until the fulfilment of the regulatory requirements.”
Upon being contacted by Dawn, Sarfaraz A. Khan of Engro Foods Ltd. said that work on the project was initiated after Sepa gave its approval on the IEE, and stated that the company had earlier not been aware that the project site lay within the Nara Game Reserve. As a result, the IEE report was submitted to Sepa, which was approved.
He added, however, that he was still not sure whether the project area did or did not fall within a protected area. “Now that this issue has been raised, we will get the EIA study done and submit it to Sepa,” he said. “Work will start once Sepa’s approval is obtained.”
‘IEE has no legal status here’
Waqar Phulpoto of Sepa Sukkur told Dawn that he had also written to his head office regarding the status of the project and its approval, pointing out that an EIA must be conducted and approved by Sepa since the project site was within the protected area. He added that the consultants who conducted the IEE had neither discussed the issue with him nor approached him when they were conducting the study.
Sepa director Naeem Mughal said similarly that if the project was within the Nara Game Reserve, which was a protected area, then any IEE and its subsequent approval had no legal status. “An EIA study would be a must and it would have to be approved by Sepa before work could be started,” he said. He added, however, that he was not aware that the IEE approval had been granted and also conceded that it was unusual for an IEE to be approved within a day.
When contacted by Dawn, SWD Sukkur chief Hussain Bakhsh Bhaagat stated that the consultants who carried out the IEE study had not contacted the SWD during the process. “The SWD came to know about the matter when the work on the project started and when SWD officials asked for permissions / NOCs from the Engro Foods’ staff,” he said. “They were then shown the IEE approval from Sepa, but this is insufficient since the project area is a wildlife protected area. An EIA has to be done and is required to be approved by Sepa, while the SWD’s permission is also required. Both of these were not available, so the company has been asked to stop work until it obtains the NOC / approval / permission from Sepa and the SWD.”
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