On World Environment Day today, a large number of villagers under the banner of Hasdeo Arand Bachao Sangharsh Samiti gathered at Madanpur - the centre place of Hasdeo Arand in Korba district about 300 km from here. The event started with reminding Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his concerns expressed for protecting forests in his “Mann Ki Baat” programme aired on May 22.

“The villagers and forest activists fumed at the meeting that it was now high time to practice what he had been preaching,” Samiti’s senior member Alok Shukla said. While the Prime Minister has been batting to protect forests, the environment minister in his Cabinet Prakash Javadekar had been advocating for allowingmining even in the “no-go” areas, he added.

The meeting unanimously decided to draft a letter to the Prime Minister to remind him about his concern and commitment. The letter would carry the signature of people from the 20 villages that had earlier passed resolution in the gram sabha to oppose mining in Hasdeo Arand coalfield.

The coalfield covers a total area of 1,878 sq km, including 1,502 sq km of forest cover. The coalfield has total estimated reserves of 5.179 billion tonne, of which 1.369 billion tonne has been proven to date. A total of over 30 coal blocks has been mapped and identified and 16 were allocated to various public sector and private players.

The villagers claimed that coal mining in Hasdeo-Arand region would not only destroy its forest canopy, tribal culture, livelihood of forest dwellers, but also adversely affect the Hasdeo-Bango dam, which is a major source of irrigation in the region. Constructed across the Hasdeo, the dam has a catchment area of 6,730 kms, mostly covering coalfields.