Although India is home to more than half of the world’s wild tigers, that is still only about 1,700 tigers where there used to be over 100,000. Tigers are already critically endangered, and now they face yet another threat.
India recently criticised China's record on tiger conservation. However, India's tigers are not safe either. Along with poaching, the main threat to tigers is habitat destruction and the last few stretches of tiger habitat look set to be destroyed for coal mining.
India's rapidly developing economy needs a lot of power and at the moment, much of this power is coming from coal-powered power plants. The environmental and social costs, however, are huge. Along with the environmental, social and health hazards of burning fossil fuels, continued coal mining in India could wipe out the tiger.
Ask the Indian Government to put sustainable energy ahead of short-term, short-sighted and destructive energy policies.
We the undersigned ask that you reconsider allowing huge amounts of tiger habitat to be destroyed for coal mining. India has already emphasised the importance of conservation in general and saving the tiger in particular. However, these words hold little water when the tiger is now at risk of being exterminated because of India's outdated energy policy.
We understand that India's economy and people need energy and that the demand is growing. However, we believe that India should focus on developing renewables to supply this demand, not destroying its remaining natural resources for a dirty power source. Coal is not renewable and sooner or later, it will run out anyway. India will still need another power source, and by then you’ll have caused irrevocable damage to the country’s natural resources.
Thank you for your attention.
