New Delhi, June 29 (Dumanimail) In its conservation efforts, Coal India Ltd on Wednesday approached the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (Moefcc) for inclusion of five coal mine pit lakes in the Ramsar list across the country.
“CIL has identified five pit lakes in West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh for consideration of inclusion in Ramsar list.
“The suitability of coal mine pit lakes for inclusion in Ramsar List was discussed with MoEFCC, the nodal Ministry for identification of wetlands for placing on the Ramsar List ‘ said an official statement.
CIL is also in the process of preparing the Ramsar Information Sheet (RIS). These mine pit water bodies are regularly visited by different species of birds and also has avifauna population.
The environment around these water bodies has ameliorated due to the efforts of CIL through large scale plantation and other soil moisture conservation activities.
To support the project, the Ministry of Coal is obtaining support and assistance from the World Bank, GIZ and other global institutions for repurposing abandoned mine sites to make them safe, environmentally stable and suitable for appropriate commercial usage.
“Reclaimed lands will be repurposed for economic usage such as solar parks, tourism, sports, forestry, agriculture, horticulture, townships,” said the Ministry
“Vast experience of these institutions in handling mine closure cases in different countries will be highly beneficial and will facilitate adoption of best global practices in repurposing of Indian coal mine sites”, said the Ministry.
According to the statement, India’s coal sector is making sustained efforts to fulfil the fast escalating energy demands by further augmenting coal production.
At the same time, the coal sector is also taking various initiatives towards adopting the path of sustainable development with emphasis on care for the environment and a host of measures to protect forests and biodiversity.
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