Environmental Investigation Agency, an international organisation focussed on implementation of national and international wildlife laws, had in its 1996 report "The Political Wilderness: India's Tiger Crisis" focussed international attention on India's lame tiger protection commitment by stating: "the political will to protect tigers, the forest and other wildlife had evaporated from the country's leadership". The report had noted with concern that "economic liberalisation has opened all areas to development and tiger habitat across India is being encroached upon, polluted and destroyed by industrial concerns". EIA had made a special reference in its report on the devastation due to mining by Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd. (KIOCL) in the Kudremukh National Park, highlighting that "the Government of India and State Governments are systematically abusing their own laws for increased profits. Some of the last important habitats are being raped by industrialists".
In a renewed attempt to build international pressure to protect India's fast depleting forest cover, Peter Richardson, EIA Tiger Campaigner has now urged Mr. S. M. Krishna, Chief Minister of Karnataka to "decide against the renewal of the KIOCL's lease….in the interest of India's people, wildlife and environment". Supporting ESG's Campaign Note "'White Elephant' in a Green Forest", which argues for a ban on mining in Kudremukh given viable alternatives, Mr. Richardson requests firmly that "(r )elocating KIOCL's operation to Sandur would be a viable alternative to wasting significant amounts of government subsidy on environmental destruction". He has criticised the PMO's interference favouring extension of KIOCL's mining lease as being in "direct violation of India's Wildlife (Protection) Act" and that it "would result in widespread destruction of the forests at Kudremukh National Park, an integral element of the Western Ghats and an internationally recognised 'biodiversity hotspot'.
In view of growing international concern on the threats from mining to Kudremukh National Park, and the neighbouring Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary (A Project Tiger Reserve), it is fervently hoped that Mr. Krishna would take the historic step of stopping further mining in Kudremukh. Not only would this be a popular step locally, but would also win him much respect internationally as an environmentally progressive decision maker.
Leo F. Saldanha