Nature and wildlife have already been damaged to the maximum and yet no one seems to have learned a lesson. And the latest one is the decision to axe about four lakh trees for a dam in Jharkhand. About 1000 hectares of land is being diverted in Palamu Tiger Reserve for the Mandal Dam.
The Environment Ministry has given the clearance to axe the trees in the Tiger Reserve with several conditions that afforestation should be done in double the area of forest land that is being diverted and also to plant at least 1,000 plants in a hectare. Though conditions have been stipulated, many of the wild life experts as well environmentalists say that all these developments are coming up on top of environmental destruction. They said that forests are not developed all of a sudden and it takes very long years. Afforestaion of a large sect of land instead of the land that is being diverted will not compensate the loss of today, they opined.
They point out that it is not the first time that the Centre government is giving nod for clearance of Tiger Reserve. The Ministry had given clearance to some projects In Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh and also had given the nod for a Uranium Mine project in Amrabad reserve (Telangana).
In the name of development, India has in the last many years witnessed large scale deforestation. It is learned that clearance is awaited for diverting many of the forest regions and wild life reserves. The wild life activists point out that the governments should at least now take a decision not to touch the remaining green cover in future in the name of development. Let the developments come up in fallow lands or barren lands, they added.
