MARGAO, Feb. 19 -- Team Herald

A collective of esteemed scientists and researchers has written a formal letter to the Regional Empowered Committee (REC), urging it to uphold the Central Empowered Committee's (CEC) strong recommendation to scrap the controversial double-tracking of the railway line from Castlerock (Karnataka) to Kulem (Goa). The experts emphasize that the project poses a severe threat to the fragile ecosystem of the Western Ghats, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and contradicts India's environmental commitments.

The letter, addressed to the REC at the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC), highlights the irreversible damage the double-tracking project would cause to the biodiversity-rich forests of t...