The Raman Singh Government of Chhattisgarh has shown extreme callousness towards the maintenance of the state’s forest and wildlife reserve, while showing more interest in raking up moolah by permitting indiscriminate mining activities in the state. And one extremely irresponsible act that it has come up with is averting the notification of an elephant reserve at Hasdeo Arand even after getting necessary permission from the Central Government. Ironically, it was the Chhattisgarh Government itself that had taken the initiative for notifying the said area as an elephant reserve.
As many of us already know that increasing mining in Jharkhand and Orissa has made a huge number of elephants to flee to the forests of Sarguja, Jashpur and Korba in Chhattisgarh. Now, in 2002 the Chhattisgarh Government sent a proposal to the Central Government seeking permission for notifying over 384 sqkm in Hasdeo Arand forests as an elephant reserve.
However, in 2006 the state government came to know about a coal block of 100 sqkm that falls within the area that it had planned to get notified as the elephant reserve. The Raman Singh government soon withdrew the proposal that it had sent to the Centre, and shrunk the reserve area by 100 sqkm.
Today it has been 4 years after the Central Government has cleared the proposal for getting that area notified as an elephant reserve. But the state government has been dragging its feet on it.
This is really ridiculous. The government is welcome to fatten its kitty by permitting corporate houses to conduct mining. After all, if there is no mining then how can we get necessary objects like steel, coal, etc.?
But mining at the cost of nation’s forest and wildlife reserve is simply unacceptable.
The wildlife activists of India must unite to prevent the Raman Singh government from fiddling with the forest and wildlife reserve of Chhattisgarh.
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Problem is that most State Governments in India, including Karnataka and Goa in our own backyard have dragged their feet and not notified wildlife buffer zones. All are guilty of promoting mining within forest areas. This entire problem is a complicated one involving local tribals, state government officials, state forest officials, Naxals, Mining mafia (that perhaps buys all these other 'components' above including the Naxals) and so on. What is needed are desperate measures but I don't think Indians as a people are even in the least bit interested or worried about their environment by and large except for pockets of resistance. Sad.
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