Stop Coal Mining in India’s Ancient Forests
- by: Judith B.
- recipient: Ministry of Coal, India
Mahan in India’s state of Madhya Pradesh contains some of Asia’s oldest sal forests. They cover an area of just under five square miles but, unfortunately for the habitat, are growing over an abundance of coal.
With a startling lack of transparency and apparently little regard for the forests, their wildlife or the people who depend on them, the coal ministry has allowed mining to go ahead in the area.
The mine will decimate the sal forests and wreck the lives of the 14,000 or so people who depend on them. Extracting even more fossils fuels is never going to be sustainable in the long or even medium term yet the human and environmental cost will be a heavy one.
Ask the Indian government to cancel plans for this destructive and unsustainable project.
We the undersigned ask that you immediately halt plans for coal mining in the sal tree (Shorea robusta) forests of Mahan in Madhya Pradesh. These ancient forests are irreplaceable and mining would destroy not only them but also the lives of the thousands of people who depend on them.
While we are aware that the companies involved will have to reforest an area equivalent to the pristine forests they destroy, this would in no way restore them or their wildlife.
Coal mining is never going to be sustainable, and this amount of destruction is far too high a price to pay. India has other, renewable energy resources and it is time to begin exploiting them on a much larger scale rather than destroying the country for the very short term gains of fossil fuels.
Please recognise the rights of local people and see that the sal forests are not sacrificed for coal.
Thank you for your attention.
