CHANDRAPUR | Oct 28, 2015: Green organizations here have joined hands to appose Durgapur deep extension coal mine coming up on the outskirts of Tadoba forests. The forest advisory committee (FAC) of the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has recently cleared the mine for excavation of 2 million ton coal per year for WCL.
Environmentalists on Tuesday vowed to oppose the mine tooth and nail and even move court to stop the mine, which will reportedly displace at least seven tigers among other animals and further escalate the already ranging man-animal conflict in the area.
Senior environmentalist and member of regional empowered committee of MoEF, Suresh Chopne claimed forest ecology in the area would be critically damaged due to new mine. While the new mine is located 12.25km from TATR core boundary, it is mere 1.2km from the south-west boundary of the buffer zone of tiger reserve. More importantly it is part of tiger corridor which leads the tigers out from TATR towards Junona and Kanhalgaon (proposed sanctuary) forests ahead into Chaprala wildlife sanctuary in Gadchiroli and Kawal tiger reserve in Telangana. Assessment of impact area of mine has revealed the presence of at least seven tigers, five leopards, eight bears, 38 spotted deers, 35 blue bull, 12 Indian Gaur, 10 barking deers and many more wild animals. These all animals will be displaced from their habitat due to the mine, Chopne charged.
Another green activist, Sachin Wazalwar said 121.50 hectares of dense forest would be lost to the mine. As many as 13,457 big trees and 64,349 bamboos will be chopped down to clear the area for the mining. He stressed that the new mine would alter the hydrology of the area. The mine would run as deep as 198 metres. It would further deplete the water table in already parched area, he charged.
Surrounding villages Sinala, Malala, Navegaon and Warvat literary have no drinking water in summers. Their wells have dried up as water level has fallen and all the water has accumulated deep in Durgapur mine. The new mine will deprive the villagers of whatever water they have for domestic and irrigational use, further worsening the situation. "There is no alternative but to cancel the permission given the mine to save these villages and wildlife in the forest around," he stressed.
Environmentalist Yogeshwar Dudhpachare claimed that even as the project report held that the density of the forest in the mining site was 0.4, in practical the forest here had density of 0.5 to 0.6. "As the forest will be cleared displacing the animals, it will further escalate the man-animal conflict in the area. This area is already hot spot of man-animal conflict. As many as nine people have been killed in predator attacks in five km radius of the mine. There had even been incidents of attacks on humans in the forest where the mine is coming. The new mine will further escalate the conflict in the area," he said.
NGOs Green Planet Society, SARD, WildCare, Prithvi Mitra Sanstha, Chandrapur-Gadchiroli Sarpmitra Sanghtna and Van Prabothani have joined hands to appose the new Durgapur deep extension mine. Wildlife activist and environmentalists claimed of taking up the matter with opposition parties to put pressure on the ruling government to cancel the mine. We will urge them to take up the matter in winter assembly session. We will seek support of NGOs and social organizations and form a unified front to appose this mine. "While taking up the matter through the protests and agitations, we will also go to National Green Tribunal for cancellation of permission to the mine," Chopne said.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)