Saranda mining plan to cover more land

Elephant conservation in the Sal rich forest of Saranda and Chaibasa in Jharkhand will be extended beyond West Singhbhum district to cover the entire Eastern Central landscape, according to the environment ministry's plan on sustainable iron ore mining. Keeping in mind the human-elephant conflict in this region due to existing mines, the plan said that covering an entire landscape would address the conflict issue, as prescribed by the Integrated Wildlife Management Plan (IWMP) of multidisciplinary expert committee.

According to the 2016 IWMP report, there are 200 elephants in Saranda and Chaibasa region and in summer, the population varied between 139 and 154, as per data from 2011 and 2012 respectively.

The "prescription of IWMP prepared and approved by the State Wildlife authority, National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) and Project Elephant (PE) of MoEF& CC must be followed and mining should be done in phased manner spread over the life of mines when all ore is exhausted as per mining plan," the plan said.

The funding for IWMP would be done from district mineral foundation that is to be established under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act. The wildlife conservation and management would be funded from Pradhan Mantri Khanih Ksehtra Kalyan Yojana.

WHY THE MOVE

• The move has been taken keeping in mind the human-elephant conflict in this region due to existing mines.
   
• The plan said covering an entire landscape would address the conflict issue, as prescribed by the Integrated Wildlife Management Plan