Mumbai An Odisha-based mining company has sought the state forest department’s nod to divert 147 hectares of known tiger habitat, in Yavatmal district’s Pandharkawada forest division, for the purpose of opening up the Marki Mangli II coal block which was auctioned off by the Centre in 2020, under the 11th tranche of auctions per the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act.
A copy of the proposal submitted by the project proponent, Yazdani International Pvt. Ltd., has been seen by Hindustan Times. The proposal has been accepted for consideration by the Pandharkawada nodal office on May 19 this year. HT also reached out to Ashok Kumar Pani, vice president at Yazdani International, who declined to comment on this story.
Experts and officials have raised a red flag over the proposed mine, which they say forms part of a crucial tiger corridor facilitating dispersion of the large carnivores between Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TTAR) in Chandrapur, Bor Tiger Reserve in Wardha, Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary and Painganga Wildlife Sanctuary in Yavatmal, and the Kawal Tiger Reserve in Telangana.
These concerns have officially been flagged by state environment minister Aaditya Thackeray, who in August 2020 wrote to the minister for coal and mines, Pralhad Joshi, saying, ‘’The Marki-Mangli-II Coal Block auction threatens the wildlife in the region since it falls in the corridor of TATR-Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary. The segment where the mine block is proposed also falls under the area of approved Tiger Conservation Plan (TCP) of Tadoba,’’ Thackeray said at the time.
“Our thriving tigers in the region will not only lose their natural habitat but would have to face a massive level of disturbances due to the mining activity and increased presence of humans in the region,” he added.
As part of their proposal seeking forest clearance (FC) for the Marki Mangli II coal mine, Yazdani International has pointed out that the forest component of the mining lease area “does not fall in either wildlife sanctuary/tiger reserve/conservation reserve or eco-sensitive zone. The area does not fall in 32 tiger corridors identified by NTCA or reflected in the publication of the WII Eastern Vidarbha Landscape. However, the presence of wildlife has been witnessed in some parts of the compartments on the fringe of the mining lease. The presence of wildlife in the project is likely to attract (provisions under) Wildlife Act, 1972 though there is no established corridor. The project will implement sound mitigation measures for the protection of wildlife.”
Kishor Rithe, wildlife conservationist and member of the State Board for Wildlife (SBWL), expressed staunch opposition to the project and said that it would be “incorrect” to state that the project site is not part of any ecological corridor. The same view was echoed by at least two senior officials in the forest department, on the condition of anonymity. “New observations on the dispersal of tigers from Tadoba clearly show that the area is used by tigers,” one of them said.
Rithe, meanwhile, said that no proposal for wildlife clearance for the coal mine has yet come before the SWBL, but that it will be through thorough scrutiny eventually. “The area in question, in Pardi, Swali and Ruikot villages, has a heavy tiger presence. Tigress T1, or Avni, was a resident of the same forest division. The Centre’s own rules dictate that tiger corridors are protected with the same stringency as protected areas and the buffer zones around them, and coal mining is not a permissible activity in these buffer zones.”
Sunil Limaye, the principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Maharashtra, directed inquiries to Naresh Zurmura, additional principal chief conservator of forests, who said, “This proposal has not yet reached my office after scrutiny from field officials. If the proposal is suitable and site-specific, only then will it be recommended by the nodal officer concerned. Otherwise, it will be rejected at their level only.”