JOIN USCoal India alive and sensitive to need of environmental protection: Chairman
Coal India chief Pramod Agrawal has said that the coal behemoth is alive and sensitive to the need of environmental protection and the PSU pursues sustainable mining practises persistently.
The statement assumes significance especially when when there has been concerns about the global climate change on account of burning of fossil fuels, including coal, which releases green gases into the atmosphere.
"Restoration of ecosystem, effective bio-reclamation, effective utilisation of water are followed with equal fervour and importance as production," Agrawal said in a communication.
Coal India, he said, has planted close to 2 million saplings during FY21 over an area of 862 hectares exceeding the target by 16 per cent.
"CIL is alive and sensitive to the need of environmental protection and pursues sustainable mining practices peristently," the chairman said in his message posted on the company's website.
Satellite surveillance indicates that in 51 major Open cast mines, producing more than 5 M.Cu.M of coal and overburden (OB) combined per annum, 67 per cent of excavated area has been restored.
He further said that 24 eco-parks and mine tourism projects have been developed so far. In FY21 CIL's effective utilisation of mine water irrigated 703 villages benefitting 11 lakh populace.
The key to co-existence with nature is to restore the ecosystems, the CIL chairman noted.
"The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. We make the world that we live in. So, with this belief let us make our world a better place to live," he said.
Nature in her abundance and benevolence provides sufficient resources to mankind for its prosperity and development and in response, replenishing back the nature becomes not only a responsibility but a moral obligation, Agrawal said.
"We have only one earth and we personify it as mother," he said, adding that here is a saying "we have not inherited the earth from our forefathers but borrow it from future generations. This perhaps lends real meaning to sustainable development."
Ecosystems are elixir of life that sustain the living on earth.
"Our very existence depends on the health of our ecosystem. The way the ecosystem is being depleted, unless we restore and shore it up the consequences would be terrible," he explained.
With care and commitment, all kinds of ecosystems can be restored -- forests, oceans, natural habitats, farmlands including cities, he added.
Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output.