Major activities in forests

Timber extractMining

Dams construction

Mining • Surface mining: shallow mining• Subsurface mining: deep mining • This results in removal of vegetation and soil.• Defacing the topography and destruction of the

landscape in the areas.• Mussorie and Dehradun valley : large scale production,

mining of various minerals over the length of 40 kms.• Mining in forest of Goa in 1961 has destroyed 50,000

ha of forest land.• Coal mining in jharia, Raniganj, singrauli area has

caused extensive deforestation in Jharkhand.• Mining of magnesite and soap stone : destroyed 14 ha

of forest in slopes at khirakot, kosi valley and almora.• Mining of radio active minerals in kerala, TN,

karnataka: threats to deforestation.

DAMS and THEIR IMPACTS

• Big dams and river valley projects : referred as “Temples of modern India”.

• India – 1550 large dams, max. is in maharastra, gujarat, M.P.

• Highest dam: tehri dam: river bhagirathi in Uttrakhand.

• Largest in capacity: Bhakra dam on river sutluj in H.P.

• The crusade against the ecological damage and deforestation caused due to tehri dam was led : Sh. Sunder Lal bahuguna. Leader of chipko movement.

• The cause of sadar sarovar dam and related issues: the environmenral activists medha patkar, joined by Arundhati Roy and baba amte.

Sardar Sarovar dam• Situated on river

Narmada: spread in three states: Gujarat, M.P, Maharastra.

• Project is aimed for Irrigation water, drinking water and electricity.

• 1,44,731 ha of land is submerged by the dam

• 56,547 ha is of forest land.• A total of 573 villages are submerged by the

narmada dam• Submergence area is very rich of wildlife: tigers,

panthers, black bucks, wolves, hyenas, jackals, flying squirrels.

• These are listed under schedule: I & II protection act 1972.

• As per the estimate of institute of urban affairs, New delhi, this projects will lead to displacement of more than one million people.

• Uprooting of tribals and their forced shifting in far flung areas may not easily adjusted.

• Displacement leads– Culture heritage– Rituals– Festivals– Songs– Dances– Myths, beliefs.– It the duty of the project proponents and government

to pay max. attention for rehabilitation of the displaced tribals.