NEW DELHI: A new government panel could put virgin forests, wildlife sanctuaries, river basins, bio-diversity hotspots under a protective cover, making them out of reach for the rampaging mining industry in India. The union ministry for environment and forest (MoEF), the custodian of India's green cover, wants the panel to set up “parameters for no-go areas, though this time it is rechristened as inviolate and pristine forests”. “The committee will comprise of wildlife officers, forest survey agencies as is going to be chaired by the secretary MoEF,” officials said, adding that the primary task of the agency was to establish ‘no go' zones in forest areas for mining purposes. India's forests are spread over 78.29 million hectares and the country's national forest policy envisions an investment $ 26 billion by the year 2020, with a goal of increasing the country's green cover from a 20percent density to 33 percent. Over the last decade India's increasing energy needs had hastened the steady degradation of forest cover, which was sacrificed on the altar of India's obsession with development. India State of Forest Report, 2011, which was released by the MoEF recently has also warned that in the last few years, India's forest cover had been depleted by 367 sq kms.
