GB-2 A PAGE FROM HIS DIARY

BY BRIKESH SINGH, green peace activist 

                            Thursday, 4 October 2012

We crossed 100,000 signatures on the petition, asking the Prime Minister to protect our forests in Central India from coal mining. A lot has happened since we started the petition, three months ago.

Once the coal scam became public, thousands of us occupied social media and made junglistan.org the most tweeted link in the country that day.

We added to the existing pressure on the government. They ordered an investigation into the scam and cancelled some, but not enough, of the coal block allocations.

Around the same time, I set out to spend a whole month in the forest of Padmapur, which is threatened by coal mining.

MTV aired my journey to the forests and made a new group of people aware of the threat forests in Central India face from coal mining. 

While I was in the forests, two activists occupied trees outside the Coal Ministry’s office in Delhi. They asked the minister to end his greed for coal.

A forest area right next to where I was living was saved from coal mining. Last month, the Adani group’s proposed coal project in the Lohara forests, in Chandrapur, was rejected by the Maharashtra Forest Department. This was a victory for the local groups, who have been fighting to save the forests in Chandrapur from coal mining.

Before I left the forests, the petition to save them crossed 100,000 signatures.

I am back from the forests and my next task is to hand over these petitions to the PM. The next few weeks will be tremendously important in our fight to save our forests. 

Watch his inspirational journey on Junglistan rises with MTV ACT-