Conservationists seek halt to exploitation of natural resources

By Bijay Kumar Sah Dhalkebar, June 24: The Chure conservation activists have demanded to withdraw the plan to excavate and process stones and rocks from the Mahabharat region after the government unveiled such a plan through the budget.

Activists at an interaction programme on Chure Conservation at Bardibas of Mahottari have demanded with the government to withdraw the mining project.

Chure conservation expert Dr. Vijay Kumar Singh Danuwar said that the government's decision to export marble, granite, precious metals, iron, stone, and rock from the Mahabharata region would cause an irreparable loss to the country. He also said that the decision was dangerous from an environmental point of view.

If stones and rocks are excavated from the Mahabharata region, the Chure will be destroyed in the future and the land of the Terai will become barren. If excavated, the remaining soil and sand will flow into the Terai. Due to this, the production of Terai-Madhes, country's bread basket, decreases, Danuwar said.

Although the government has said it will conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA), there is a risk that it will have a serious impact on the environment, he added. He expressed the view that the government should not implement the plan as it is not in the interest of the environment and the country.

Similarly, the Chairman of the Community Development and Advocacy Forum Nagdev Yadav said that the government was moving towards desertification of Terai-Madhes region by bringing this scheme.

In the Mahabharata region, only 30 to 40 per cent is stone and rock and the remaining 60 to 70 per cent is sand and soil. All of them flow into Terai-Madhes and the cultivable fields will become deserts and the process has already started, he informed.

According to Yadav, selling stones to reduce the country's economic deficit is like selling a mother's kidney and buying gold for wife. The government has again brought the same programme as last year in an indirect way. It is unfortunate for the country to go ahead with this plan.

Most of the speakers at the interaction programme said that emphasis should be laid on the conservation of the lifeline of Terai-Madhes – Chure- and that pressure would be exerted to prevent the implementation of this plan brought by the government.

Point 124 of the budget brought by the government for the upcoming fiscal year 2079/80 states that marble, granite and precious metals, iron, stone and rock will be excavated and processed on the basis of EIA from potential locations identified by the Department of Mines in the Mahabharat region.

The government had mentioned the issue of exporting sand, stone and ballast to India to cut the trade deficit in the budget of the Fiscal Year 2078/79 through an ordinance. The Supreme Court had given an interim order to the government not to implement point 199 of the budget statement on mining stone, ballast and sand to reduce trade deficit.