Protest banner against PM at Charminar

Hours after Jayanthi Natarajan, the Minster of the Environment and Forests, opened the United Nations conference on biodiversity in Hyderabad, Greenpeace activists on Monday unfurled a banner from the balcony of the Charminar, one of the city’s most iconic monuments, demanding that the Indian Government halt all new coal mining in forest areas.

The 60-foot banner emblazoned with the Indian Prime Minister’s face read – Stop Coal Crimes – Save Indian Forests.

Telugu movie star Amala Nagarjuna also joined the environment activists in Hyderabad. Commenting on why she was taking part in protest Amala Nagarjuna said: “Coal mining is destroying the huge biodiversity in India. It is destroying the homes of tens of thousands of tribal communities and it is threatening the natural habitat of the Indian Tiger. That is why I am protesting today along with almost a quarter of a million people who have signed Greenpeace India’s petition demanding the government to stop destroying our forests”.

In recent months a series of serious allegations have surfaced on the allocation of licenses for new coal mines by the Indian Government which has led to the stalling of the Indian Parliament and a demand for a probe into coal blocks allocations.

Vinuta Gopal, head of Greenpeace’s Climate and Energy campaign said: “It is utterly hypocritical for the Minister of Environment to stand up in front of thousands of delegates at this conference on biodiversity while at the same time her government is engaged in acts of wanton environmental vandalism that is demolishing millions of hectares of forests and affecting thousands of tribal families”.

Maintaining pressure on the government, Greenpeace India along with Kalpavriksh, an NGO working for environment conservation, will release a new report on October 15 highlighting how the expansion of coal mining across the central Indian landscape is systematically destroying the lives of thousands of indigenous communities, with many being forced to abandon their traditional lands and live in so called ‘rehabilitation centres’.

This new study will be launched at the UN’s biodiversity conference on the eve of the Indian PM’s address to delegates at the conference.

Related Stories

CBI registers third PE in coal scam

Structural Reforms Needed

Coalgate: Government lost Rs 1.86 lakh crore