Chandrapur (Maharashtra), Sep 22 (IANS) The government should look at renewable energy as an alternative to coal, BJP MP Hansraj Ahir said Saturday during a meeting with a Greenpeace activist who has been living on a tree to campaign against the destruction of forests.
Brikesh Singh has been living in a tree house on the fringes of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Chandrapur district since Sep 1.
He is on a two-month campaign against the destruction of forest areas, which is the largest habitat of the tiger and will result in the displacement of millions of forest dependent communities.
Ahir, a Lok Sabha member from Chandrapur, has fought against the coal lobby in Maharashtra since 2005.
"I admire what Brikesh Singh is doing to save the forests and appreciate the fact that the tree house is fitted with solar panels for power. This is a multi-dimensional campaign, not just raising awareness against coal, but also veering focus towards solar energy," Ahir said.
"It is about time that the central government looks towards renewable energy as an alternative to coal. It should avoid allocating coal blocks on forest land," he added.
In the past three weeks, Singh has been sharing his experience of living in the forest through his blogs, Facebook and other social networking websites. He has been and inviting people to become citizens of Junglistan (a virtual republic encompassing central and eastern India's last remaining forests).
So far 1.35 lakh people have joined "Junglistan" and over 90,000 individuals have signed the petition.
Brikesh Singh will be delivering these petitions to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad Oct 1-19.
"We are losing these forests to the greed of private mining companies and a corrupt system. India cannot host the convention on bio-diversity and at the same time turn a blind eye to this destruction," Brikesh Singh said.
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