India, April 12 -- The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the central ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) has deferred a proposal from Tata Power to divert 160.78 hectares of forest land for the construction of the 1800-MW Pumped Hydro Storage Project to be set up in Pune district's Shirwata. The committee observed that the proposed land fell in the eco-sensitive area of the Western Ghats.

The aforementioned forest land has a canopy density of 0.7 (very dense forest), and 64,729 trees are proposed to be felled, according to the minutes of the meeting held on March 24, which were uploaded last week. The project also requires 37.01 hectares of private land. When contacted by HT, a Tata Power spokesperson declined to...