MUMBAI, June 8: The proposed Rs 1,400-crore Mumbai-Pune Expressway has been stalled as the Union Environment and Forests Ministry has raised fears that the project could wipe out two endangered animals, the mouse deer and the Malabar giant squirrel, from the Sahyadris near Lonavla.

With this, approval for starting the work will not be coming for an indefinite period of time, say officials of the Public Works Department. As much as 27 hectares of forests are planned to be cut down for the expressway in the Sahyadris, where the mouse deer and the giant squirrel live. An environmental assessment report by the ministry asks whether this wouldn't put the animals in danger of extinction. The PWD officials say the query has perplexed PWD Minister Nitin Gadkari who immediately ordered a special probe into the matter. Surprisingly, the officials denied the existence of the two animals in the area in question.

Environmentalists feel the expressway is a threat to wildlife in the dense forests near Lonavala and Pune. They charge that the state government is flouting environmental rules to hurry the project through and claim credit for its success.

Ecologist Renee Borges, who has extensively studied animal species in the state, told Express Newsline, ``The mouse deer and the Malabar giant squirrel are found in very dense and mature forests in Maharashtra. ``Both species are in very small number and figure in the Schedule-I category of animals which are feared to become extinct very soon. They are found among tall, dense trees and are indicators of mature forests of which there are only a few square kilometres spread over the entire state. To save them from extinction, these patches must be saved.''

The PWD officials asserted that the two animals were not found in a survey done by a department team. They added that a massive afforestation plan has been chalked out to compensate for the loss that would result from building the expressway. They added that the ministry's report has once again put the brakes on the massive project. It will take at least two years before another survey is done and a report submitted. This would, they said, would push up costs. PWD Minister Gadkari was not available for comments at his office in Mantralaya as well as his constituency in Nagpur. His personal assistant in Nagpur said over the phone that the minister was busy with inaugurations of various projects at Yavatmal in the Vidarbha region.

On the road to doom?

The Indian Chevrotain or mouse deer

Local name Pisura

Found in dense elevated forests up to 6,000 feet

Tiny creature with slender limbs and high hind quarters

Height 10 to 12 inches at shoulder level

No front teeth in the upper jaw

Males have tusks

Throat has three white stripes

Schedule-I animal in Maharashtra

Giant Squirrel

Height 14 to 16 inches, tail about two feet long

Inhabits deciduous, mixed deciduous and moist evergreen forests

Keeps to summits of higher trees and seldom comes on the ground

Can cover 20 feet in a single leap from tree to tree

Most active and agile in the early hours of the morning and evening

Sooner heard than seen despite brilliant colouring

Like monkeys it can scold, bark and raise a general alarmn Schedule-I animal in Maharashtra.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.