‘Stop auctioning of Bander coal blocks’

Nagpur: A social worker has filed a PIL in the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court challenging the central government’s move to auction Bander coal blocks near Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) without clearance from the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC).
A division bench comprising justices Ravi Deshpande and Amit Borkar on Friday issued notices to the respondents, including MoEFCC secretary, asking them to reply within eight weeks.They included state revenue and forest department secretary, Coal India Limited (CIL) and others. The petitioner had attached TOI’s report published on June 20 with the petition.
In a series of reports this week, TOI published that a massive area of over 1,200 hectares of rich forest will have to be diverted if mining is allowed in TATR. Quoting wildlife experts, the newspaper reported that Bander blocks fall in the route used by tigers to disperse from Tadoba to Bor reserve in Wardha and Melghat in Amravati.
Petitioner Pramod Junghare, through counsel Ashwin Ingole, contended that these blocks fall under the eco-sensitive zone, which is also TATR’s buffer zone. Therefore, coal mining there requires environmental clearance under the Environment Protection Act, Forest Conservation Act and Wildlife Protection Act from National Board for Wildlife (NBWL).
Spread over 153.86 sq km, the blocks have 59.12 sq metres of dense forest cover and remaining 0.22 sq km has plantations by the social forestry department. Situated in the ecologically rich area near TATR, the mining activity would ruin the environment and people’s health.
There were alternatives for power generation like windmills and solar plans, while the move to allot blocks is only to favour the coal lobby. These blocks are classified as “no go areas” as per the classification carried out by CIL itself in 2009-10. Hence, permission to carry out mining there smacks mala fide intentions, warranting HC’s interference.
Quoting TOI’s report of June 21, the petitioner informed that there was uproar in Chandrapur following the government’s decision which would escalate man-animal conflict. Earlier, same blocks were cancelled in 1999 and again in 2009. Even the TATR field director in his report submitted on August 17, 2011, had observed that any effort to start mining there would be detrimental to wildlife.
Junghare pointed out that if coal blocks’ allotment isn’t stopped, it would cause irreparable loss to wildlife and environment. He prayed for declaring the government’s decision in this regard as illegal and stay its move for auctioning the blocks.