Overview
- The Expert Appraisal Committee under the environment ministry recommended in-principle approval to divert 148.15 hectares of forest adjoining the BARC site in Anakapalli.
- A senior Andhra Pradesh forest official said the land has been allotted to BARC, and the panel set a condition barring any future non-project land-use changes on the diverted area.
- Of the 148.15 hectares, 120.32 hectares will remain as security buffer while 27.83 hectares will host services such as seawater and effluent lines, a jetty, watchtowers, a compound wall and patrol roads.
- The campus integrates roughly 1,200 hectares of previously acquired revenue land near Visakhapatnam, with the site chosen by a central committee and approved by the Atomic Energy Commission for strategic reasons.
- EAC records note felling of 1,722 of 21,244 trees while preserving coastal trees and assessing no impact on the general ecosystem, and the detailed project report remains classified.