Wildlife board halts mining near Barda sanctuary

The 192-sq km Barda sanctuary has for years been earmarked by the state forest department as a suitable place to either translocate endangered Asiatic Lions or let the animals disperse into it naturally. Records exist of the carnivores living there in the last century.

As of now,Cheetal and Sambar,both prey of the apex carnivore,have been reintroduced in the sanctuary where leopards,hyenas,wild boars,wolves,jackals,bluebulls and rare and endangered spotted eagles and crested hawk eagles already live.

Asiatic Lions were spotted as close as 60 kms from Barda recently.

“Gujarat government had identified Barda as a suitable habitat for lions,which have been moving close to the boundaries of Barda but have not been able to move further into Barda due to the large number of mines scattered along its boundary,” Ranjitsinh is quoted as saying in the official minutes of the NBWL’s last meeting held in March in which it was decided that an inspection should precede a go-ahead for mining. The mines belong to Saurashtra Chemicals Ltd,a business concern of the Nirma group which took it over from its previous owners,Aditya Birla Group,in 2005.

Another NBWL member,Prerna Bindra,who previously lived and worked in Gujarat,“expressed concern on the large number of mining leases,and even illegal mining,around Barda”.