Greens, wildlife buffs miffed over coal block in Gondkhairi

Nagpur: At a time when human-animal is at its peak in the Vidarbha region due to shrinking wildlife habitats claiming 37 lives, allotment of coal block to Adani Power Maharashtra Limited (APML) in Gondkhairi, 20km from the city, has ruffled the feathers of environmentalists and wildlife conservationists.
On August 4, Adani won bid for Gondkhairi coal block to extract 1 MTPA of coal for Rs122.83 crores. Greens have been critical about the allotment as 112 hectares of rich open mixed forest land, equivalent to 277 football fields is part of the block and will be diverted for mining.
Wildlife conservationists, who have been fighting to mitigate conflict and save wildlife and forests in the region, have flayed BJP’s government doublespeak about promoting renewable energy on one hand and allotting coal blocks in wildlife-rich pockets on the other.
In 2008, the coal block was allotted for underground mining to a joint venture of three parties but mining was never done perhaps due to coal allocation scam. In the 13 years, Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 has been amended and corridors and buffer zones for tiger reserves have been notified.
The tiger number in Maharashtra in 2008 was 131 and has jumped to 312 as per the in 2018 as per the ‘Status of Tigers, Co-predators & Prey India’. In 2014, Bor was declared a tiger reserve and since then there is a jump in tiger numbers with the spillover population dispersing to Kalmeshwar range.
“There are resident tigers in the Kalmeshwar range and the said forest patch in the coal block is being used by big cats. There is also the presence of Schedule animals in the area. In September 2019, a tiger had ventured into Fetri from Kalmeshwar from the said forest patches. Not only this, an area adjoining the coal block also has forest which will be affected due to mining,” said a section of RFOs who worked in Kalmeshwar.
“The department should vary if it is a corridor. Even if it is not, tigers must be using such patches and may require such forest areas for survival. In a similar proposal in the Pandharkawda division, the PCCF had formed an expert committee to take a call. This project should also be treated on similar lines. Such projects fragment tiger habitats causing conflict,” says ex-honorary wildlife warden Jaydeep Das.
“It’s quite amazing that when the entire world is moving away from coal, and the impact of climate change is staring us in the face, Adani is not only bidding for new coal mines in India but is even going ahead with their coal mine in Australia, supposedly one of biggest coal mines in the world,” says environmentalist Debi Goenka.
“It is also now evident that none of the power stations in India, including the Tiroda power plant operated by Adani, is able to comply with the provisions of the fly ash notification. Allowing to mine the coal from Gondkhairi close to Nagpur is not only going to aggravate these problems but will also add to the pollution,” Goenka adds.
Sudhir Paliwal, convenor, Vidarbha Environment Action Group (VEAG), said, “Even as mining will be done underground, it will cause acid mine drainage due to sulfur content of coal. It will contaminate surface and groundwater with oil, tan and grease mixing in water and will also destroy Surabardi lake.”
“In Murpaar near Chimur, the underground coal mine by WCL has caused water scarcity thereby depriving farmers of drinking water and irrigation. All the village wells have gone dry. High pollution is expected as most of the mined coal will be transported in open trucks,” said Paliwal.
However, even as the coal block has been allotted, deputy conservator of forests (DyCF) Bharat Singh Hada said, “In case of forest land diversion, the company will have to submit a formal proposal online under FCA with the state nodal officer. It will then come to me for critical review and only after site visits and surveys a decision will be taken. As of now, no proposal has been submitted.”