Drilling To Extinction

Unregulated large-scale mining activities have decimated plant and wildlife populations in the once-rich Saranda forest in Jharkhand

- Dipak Anand and Syed Ainul Hussain

THE SARANDA forests, spread over an area of over 82,000 hectares (ha) in the hilly regions of West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, were once one of the most pristine regions in India and home to the largest sal forests in the country. Apart from its unique forage plant species, abundant waterbodies, and a magnificent landscape, the region was an important elephant corridor till the early 1990s. Here, the Indian Forest Service used to hold training programmes for its officers, which was later discontinued.

Today, Saranda’s landscape stands brutally mutilated. As the region holds large deposits of high-grade iron ore, indiscriminate mining has disturbed the ecosystem of this fragile region. Saranda forest had more than 300 plant species, which has come down to just 87 species, according to a recent study by the Wildlife Institute of India (wii). The research team also found wide differences in the number of both flora and fauna in the study area in January 2016. The team found only 19 species of mammals belonging to 14 families; earlier research teams had documented over 30 species. The team also found just 116 species of birds, as compared to the 148 species found earlier. Worse, the research team could not document a single sighting of an elephant. The 2010 elephant census sighted 253 elephants.

Mining problems