The Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife has given in-principle clearance to a railway line project that will claim more than 200 hectares of forest within the tiger corridor linking Satpura Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh and Melghat Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. The clearance was granted subject to several conditions and follows review of project documentation and a site inspection. The committee is India's apex wildlife body charged with safeguarding ecological integrity. The committee recommended that all mitigation measures be adopted in line with a scientific study by the State Forest Research Institute in Jabalpur and linked clearance to implementation of those measures. The project's wildlife conservation management report identified impacts at two corridor locations and within an eco-sensitive zone in the Satpura-Pench-Melghat landscape, noting that the corridor ensures forest contiguity and supports tiger populations in central India. The report emphasised that connectivity sustains biodiversity, facilitates interbreeding, permits movement of species across a larger landscape and enables range expansion. The report also identified potential adverse effects on wildlife, warning that rail infrastructure and associated human activity could restrict or inhibit species movement through noise, train movement, pollution and increased human presence. It warned of a possible rise in man-animal conflict as habitats shrink and animals explore new areas. The assessment cautioned that railways risk disrupting normal home ranges and forcing animals into areas where they may encounter people. The project calls for Central Railway to construct a third line from Jujharpur in Betul district to Chichonda in Narmadapuram district in Madhya Pradesh. A committee that inspected the site in March and the SC-NBWL meeting minutes of nine July noted that proposals for numerous wildlife overpasses had been made but that detailed engineering designs and a comprehensive landscape-level assessment were not yet finalised. The clearance recommendation is therefore conditional, requiring the site inspection committee to revisit the area after review of the scientific study and submit definitive recommendations on location, dimensions, design and connectivity of mitigation structures.