Good news for tigers, environmentalists and animal advocates: the Indian government has postponed granting permission to Rio Tinto to open a diamond mine in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, according to several news sources. The reason: Rio Tinto’s plans for the area might endanger a rich forest area and a tiger corridor between the Panna Tiger Reserve and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary.
This may cost Rio Tinto a mint, as the company says the area holds 53.7 million tonnes of Kimberlite ore with 34.2 million carats of diamonds; however, to ready the region for mining purposes, the area will have to be cleared of 971 hectares of forest area. According to the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), the forest areas proposed for clearing are part of an important tiger corridor, through which tigers move from one protected reserve to another. In March, FAC asked the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to review the project.
Diamonds were first discovered in the area in 2004, and in 2010, Rio Tinto signed an agreement with the Madhya Pradesh government to explore it. On July 12, according to Rough & Polished, the FAC put the project on hold, saying: “As per the National Tiger Conservation Authority report – project can potentially disrupt landscape character vis a vis tiger dispersal around Panna landscape as such this may be taken only when Ken-Betwa (river) interlink is finalised as well as detailed study is done to assess other alternatives”.
Rio Tinto was asked to explore the possibility of underground mining, but the revised proposal submitted by the mining company is “highly dependent” on surface extraction. And this, the committee says, “will entail greater extent of forest land use, leading to permanent loss of the high quality forest areas”, Rough & Polished reports.
Does Rio Tinto have real cause for concern? If India’s history with tiger preservation is any indication, the mining giant should be more than slightly worried. India has 49 tiger reserves, all governed by what is called “Project Tiger”, which is efficiently ran by the NTCA. India is now home to about 70% of the tigers in the world, and according to figures presented by India’s Environment Minister, their numbers continue to climb steadily: from 1,411 tigers in 2006, there are now more than 2,500 wild tigers in the country.
