Jamnagar’s ‘Vantara�?project to be replicated in Thane: Min

Abhishek Choudhari / Apr 11, 2025, 01:01 IST

Text Size

Small
Medium
Large

Jamnagar’s ‘Vantara�?project to be replicated in Thane: Min

Nagpur: Maharashtra forest minister Ganesh Naik has requested Anant Ambani to replicate Jamnagar's Vantara project in Maharashtra, for which land has been identified in Thane district.
Talking to reporters in Nagpur on Thursday, Naik said animals who are injured or in conflict with humans, can be shifted to a sprawling facility in the Mumbai neighbourhood.
Also, forest clearances for projects of national importance will be expedited and impetus given to raise revenue of the forest department through various initiatives, he said. The forest minister announced a slew of decisions and proposed initiatives, after holding marathon eight-hour long meetings on Wednesday and Thursday with officials at Nagpur, which houses the state forest department headquarters.
Naik said he recently visited Ambani's ‘Vantara' project with forest officials. "I wrote to (Anant) Ambani, asking him to start ‘Surya-Tara' in Maharashtra. MMRDA has identified land for this in Thane district," said Naik, who was responding to queries on lack of accommodation facilities for tigers in the rescue centre. "And why only Ambani, other corporates like Adani and others can also start such facilities to take care of animals," said Naik.

Getting forest clearances for road and other infra projects has been a major bottleneck. "I have instructed officials to expedite clearances for projects of national importance. All projects announced by PM Narendra Modi will get clearances on a war footing," said Naik.
On prevention of forest fires, Naik said drones will be used in a big way. "These are drones which have the capacity to carry up to 400 KG of powdered extinguishers. Without threat to human life, the drones can be deployed above raging fires," said Naik.
He added old methods of using a blower are not efficient and use of technology is the need of the hour.
For raising revenue from forests, Naik said unused land in their control will be used for solar power generation.
"The cost of generating 1MW of solar power has come down from what it was two decades ago. We will float a global tender and use this land for revenue generation," said Naik

End of Article