FELLING OF TREES FOR PARSA COAL MINING PROJECT STARTS IN C’GARH; VILLAGERS PROTEST
AMBIKAPUR: The Chhattisgarh forest department has launched a tree cutting exercise to pave the way for start of the Parsa coal mining project in the Surguja division, triggering strong opposition from local villagers who forced the authorities to halt their action after 300 trees were axed.
The move came days after the Chhattisgarh government granted the final approval for non-forestry use of forest land in the Parsa coal mining project area.
According to villagers, they learnt about the deforestation exercise early in the morning and rushed to the spot to register their objection.
On April 6, the state government had given the final approval for non-forestry use of 841.538 hectares of forest land for the Parsa coal mine spread across Surguja and Surajpur districts in northern part of the state.
The mine has been allotted to Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (RRVUNL).
“As many as 300 trees were felled in Janardanpur village (Surajpur district) under the Ramanujnagar forest range for the Parsa coal mine project. After the objection by local villagers, the work was stopped,” a local forest official said.
“Around 1,590 trees are to be cut in this area for the project. Further action in this direction will be taken after getting directives from senior officials,” he added.
On getting information about the deforestation work in Janardanpur which is close to Salhi village (Surguja district), residents of project-affected villages reached there, said Ramlal Kariyam, a resident of Salhi.
Over 50 police personnel were deployed to facilitate the deforestation work, he added. “The residents of Salhi, Fatehpur and Hariharpur villages have been protesting against the project for a long time. We have even demanded a probe into forged gram sabha documents based on which clearances have been given for the project,” he said.
Eeshanpriya MS
MUMBAI: After two and a half years of handling the municipal corporation’s public health department through the pandemic, additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani will retire on Friday.
An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 2003 batch, Kakani also worked in various government departments and as managing director of Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation. He was instrumental in the successful operation of Shirdi International Airport, commercialisation of Nagpur Airport, promotion of Purandar (Pune), Amravati and Chandrapur airports.
Are we prepared infrastructure-wise to handle the next pandemic?
Yes and No. Yes, because we have all the systems in place. In 15 days, we can develop a hospital and use it for isolation (in-case of another pandemic). And no, because each pandemic is different and we are not sure what we may have to deal with next.
A few years ago, all our hospitals were flooded with malaria cases. In such a case, jumbo hospitals won’t work. But we have learnt that makeshift hospitals can be created in no time, or semi-permanent facilities like Richardson and Crudas in Byculla, or Mulund jumbo facility or NCSI jumbo facility. In case of a future pandemic, the last-minute rush will always be there, because we cannot keep our makeshift hospitals idle in a non-pandemic time.
What did the crisis teach you about managing city?
The pandemic has been an opportunity to prepare and learn. It tested our creativity. We managed to sail through it due to team effort, active governance, and timely tackling of all issues. Our most important learning is research, which equips you to stay ahead of the issue and prepare accordingly.
We also made deliberate attempts to showcase to the world that yes, we have the capacity, and we are prepared. Instead of saying we are trying, we led.
The biggest lessons from the first wave?
The first wave was the worst as nothing was certain. Nobody knew what the protocol was, what management was required, what line of treatment needed to be followed. The biggest lesson is integration. We could achieve this only because of integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary health centres. The second lesson is channelisation of efforts and ideation.
What changed after the first wave?
During the first wave, we did not know how many patients we were going to see. So, for the initial one month, our focus was on limited hospitals. Subsequently, we tried to reclaim our peripheral and major hospitals. But even after roping them in, we could not substantially increase the number of beds as they were being used for nonCovid services. It was a difficult task to ask them to be discharged on such short notice.
That’s when we came up with the idea of having field hospitals, and the first one was at NSCI was built, then at BKC. As these two hospitals were successful, we roped in Seven Hills, and NESCO, Mulund and Dahisar. Initially these hospitals were quarantine centres, but eventually we realised ICU and oxygen requirement were increasing, and instead of shifting patients to major hospitals, we decided that jumbo centres will be given this facility. That became a game changer for us.