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Former MLA and convener of Save Saranda Campaign Sarayu Roy filed a PIL at Jharkhand High Court on Monday to protect Saranda and adjoining dense reserve forests from unscrupulous mining and other related economic activities.
Roy urged the court to ensure immediate implementation of the order that the director general of forests-cum-special secretary of the Union government sent to chief secretary on June 16, 2003, asking him to phase out mining and economic activities from Saranda.
On the basis of the order, the principle chief conservator of forests, after adequate groundwork, submitted a proposal to the government on February 14, 2006, for publication in the state gazette. However, the proposal is still lying with the state, the petition said.
The phase-out plan contained an exhaustive list of virgin area of 63,199.89 hectares in Saranda, which was recommended to be declared “inviolate compartment”. But the successive state governments recommended several segments of such virgin pockets of Saranda for iron-ore mining to public and private sector companies over the past five years, Roy said.
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