JOIN US Greenpeace on Friday protested before Environment minister Veerappa Moily against the stage II forest clearance of Mahan coal block in Madhya Pradesh granted to Essar.
The minister was attending a UN Global Impact convention in a five star hotel along with executives of the Essar.
To coincide with Valentine’s Day, Greenpeace activists were bearing tiger suit and holding placards with slogan Essar Loves Moily, axes forests.
The protest came two days after the Ministry of Environment and Forests granted Stage II forest clearance to Mahan coal block.
Expressing anguish over the Mahan coal bock clearance, Greenpeace campaigner Arpana Udupa said, “Granting stage II clearance to Mahan coal block is a blatant violation of the Forest Rights Act and we will continue to stand with the people whose livelihoods would be ruined by this project, to defend their rights”.
In June last year, Union Minister of Tribal Affairs K C Deo had written to the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh regarding the FRA violations in Mahan, but his protest has been conveniently ignored.
Even Moily’s predecessors Jairam Ramesh and Jayanthi Natrajan had opposed the clearance given to Mahan coal block.