For The Mahan Forest

There was a time when sky was clear and no sign of rain, but now, things are different. Though   excessive rainfall has caused catastrophic events, the life seems to be doing good as well as before. Neither hard downpour nor floods have stopped the excitement of the times. Mahan, the forest in Madhya Pradesh has been under threat from business activity which sould be saved,  as believed by the villagers, activist there and I as also,  needs to look at from the environmentalist’s perspective. There has been a strong protest going on as described hereafter.

It all started 3 years ago when a  community of activists  decided to stand up for the forest like Mahan in Madhya Pradesh which is home to varieties of birds, animals and people(vanvasi). The people living in Mahan are dependent on forest for their livelihoods and cutting of trees mean villagers are in danger of their natural living. If the company Essar Energy, which has been given permission by previous government to coal mine for power generation and other important work(economic development, as argued by the company), start felling the trees without relocating the people of Mahan then it would be disastrous.

As per the communication to me by one of the activists, Brikesh,  the company wants to completely destroy Mahan, which is even more devastating. So there was a protest at the Essar’s office in Mumbai by the activists and the people of Mahan, in doing so some of them were detained for sit-in protest at the gates of Essar.On March 21st, the International Day of Forest, there were protests on the web by posting an Image of the Mahan and trending of #IAmMhan on the  Twitter, over a million people have joined caravan. To accelerate it further it was decided to publish  a full page ad in news papers, which may cost a lot, hence needs to have  sound financial supply from the supporters which it received comfartably. On 23^rd april, the Earth Day, there was an ad in Business Standard news paper and garnered more support. Then there were Rakhis pledged in august to save the trees of Mahan, which should smoothen the ongoing protest towards a solution. 

You can show your unwavering support for Mahan  here…