India: Mining policy destroying biodiversity October 11th 2012
The Indian government’s mining policy is destroying the
country’s biodiversity and tiger habitats, an NGO on Sunday [7
October] claimed and sought a re-look into the ‘massive’
expansion plan of coal fields in forest areas. Hours before the
start of the UN biodiversity conference in Hyderabad, Greenpeace
asked the government to ‘demonstrate leadership’ by protecting
the rich biodiversity that lies within its own borders. ’The
government’s present policy of increasing coal mining is
destroying the environment including the habitat of the
endangered Indian tiger. It is also forcing tens of thousands of
its own citizens to leave their homes,’ a Greenpeace statement
said. ‘The Indian government must stop the destruction of vital
biodiversity,’ it said ahead of the UN’s 11th Conference of
Parties of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) to be
inaugurated by environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan tomorrow,
seeking a halt in the ‘massive expansion plan’ o