The Chhattisgarh Government has asked the Center not to allow the auction of coal blocks falling under Hasdeo Arand, the Lemru Elephant Reserve and the Mand River catchment area, which is rich in biodiversity.
Five of the nine coal blocks to be auctioned for commercial mining fall within this area , which includes Morga-2, Morga (South), Madanpur North, Shyang and Fathehpur (East).
In a letter to the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change of the Union, Prakash Javadekar, on Saturday, Chhattisgarh Forestry Minister Mohammad Akbar said that many public and private sector industries are currently engaged in coal mining in Chhattisgarh.
“Coal block between Hasdev Arand and Mand river area was also proposed for auction by the Union government …. Recently, there has been an increase in the numbers of wild elephants in the state which has led to a spike in human-elephant conflict. For providing habitat for wild elephants, 1,995 sq km of forest area around Hasdeo river has been declared as Lemru elephant reserve. The process of issuing notification for the same is under process,” Akbar said in the letter.
He reasoned that it is necessary to stop mining in that region to prevent loss of human lives and control on man-elephant conflict.
“It is my humble request to you, that in the upcoming coal block auction, the Hasdev Aranya and its adjacent Mand river coal blocks located in the catchment area and areas within the range of the proposed elephant reserve should not be included in the auction,” Akbar wrote.
A senior officer said that apart from five coal blocks which fall under this area, the government has no opposition in auctioning other four other mines.
“The other mines fall in areas which are not in Hasdeo Arand and catchment area , hence there is no issue in auctioning those,” said a senior forest official.
Hasdeo Arand spans 170,000 hectares of forests.
The other four coal blocks are -- Gare Palema (4/1), Gare Palema (4/7), Shankarpur Bhatgaon (second extension) and Sondhia.
The officer said Chhattisgarh has not yet decided to approach the Supreme Court on the issue.
“We have not decided to move the Supreme Court like Jharkhand till now,” said the officer.
On Saturday, the Jharkhand Government moved the Supreme Court to challenge the Center's decision to auction coal blocks for commercial mining.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said the coal auction was a huge policy decision and the respective state governments needed to be trusted.
Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan, who works for tribal rights in Hasdeo Arand, accused the Center of ignoring environmental concerns while deciding on the coal blocks to be auctioned.
“We welcome the letter written by the Chhattisgarh government. It is clear that in the auction process of coal block, the Modi government has not only ignored the environmental concerns but the opposition of gram sabhas was also not taken into consideration. This auction is also an attack on the federal structure because the centralization of the entire process has taken away the rights of the states,” said Alok Shukla, convener of Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan.
Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh government is considering increasing the area of the Lemru Elephant Reserve after activists have called for the total catchment area of the Hasdeo River to be included in the reserve.
Forestry sources indicated that the final decision had to be taken by the Chief Minister, but that the total area of the reserve, which is approximately 1995, could be extended by a square kilometer.
The Government may include a total or part of the catchment area of Hasdeo Basin, which is approximately 250 square kilometers with an elephant reserve. The main obstacle to the government is four operational mines, five allotted mines and 12 coal reserves that fall within the Hasdeo Basin catchment area.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an auction on Thursday for 41 coal mines for commercial mining, saying that the commodity market is now open and that sales will help turn the Covid-19 crisis into an opportunity.
But several of the 41 mines are located in biodiversity-rich forest areas in central India.
