India, March 6 -- Union environment ministry's Regional Empowered Committee (REC) has rejected a proposal to lift the abeyance on the diversion of around 15-hectare land under Goa's Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary for the doubling of the Kulem-Kalem section of a railway track in the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats.

The approval for the project in April 2020 triggered protests in Goa. Residents feared it would pave the way for additional coal transportation to Karnataka's steel plants.

The Rail Vikas Nigam Limited sought the lifting of the abeyance for the stretch on the edge of the sanctuary arguing the committee's recommendations and the Supreme Court's orders in this regard did not apply to it. It said they should be interpret...