TNI Bureau: Greenpeace and Wildlife Society of Odisha (WSO) have jointly protested against coal mining by the government in forest areas. The Environment activists of these organizations have warned that coal mining in forest areas would endanger wildlife, water resources and livelihood of millions of people. They demanded immediate cessation of forest coal mines projects on Wednesday in Bhubaneswar.

A survey report by the above organizations shows that forests are falling prey to coal mining and its adverse impact on wild animals and human population is highly lamentable.

The protestors have cautioned that the recent huge power failure in several states of India is a wake-up call for the government to re-conceptualize the current energy policy.

Ashish Fernandes of Greenpeace and Biswajit Mohanty of the WSO has astonished that how come the ministry of environment and forests continues to allow coal power projects and mines way beyond requirements, despite strong objections of its own officials and committees.

The environmentalists cited the Planning Commission as estimating the coal requirement for power generation in 2031-2032 was 1,475 to 1,659 million tons which points finger towards huge destruction of forests and wildlife in the coming days.