HYDERABAD: The ball is now in Telangana government’s court on the issue surrounding the proposal for uranium survey and exploration by Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMDER) in Amrabad Tiger Reserve in the Nallamala Hills. The proposal for uranium exploration and survey in Amrabad Tiger Reserve had come up for hearing in the recently held meeting of Forest Advisory Committee of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).
According to the minutes of the FAC meeting, Telangana government has been asked to submit the decision taken by its State Board for Wildlife and further action taken on it. For this, the State government will have to convene a State Board for Wildlife (SBWL) meeting again on the issue apart from taking up other paper and field work. It has to be mentioned here that the Telangana SBWL had previously cleared the proposal for uranium survey, in December 2016.
Commenting on this, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), R Sobha, told The New Indian Express that the earlier proposal was different and now, a detailed guideline has been provided in the proposal, in ‘Form C’. This will be examined on the field again and the details will be submitted to the State government and SBWL for taking further action. Although Telangana Legislative Council passed a resolution requesting the Centre not to allow uranium mining in the State, this alone won’t be enough to stop AMDER, if government wants it that way. Moreover, even though the State submitted a resolution passed by the Legislative Council, verbatim, the FAC has asked the former to submit its ‘clear recommendation’ and whether it approves or rejects the proposal, under Forest Act.
Proposal
The SBWL had earlier cleared the proposal for uranium survey, in Dec 2016. Officials say, at that time, details regarding the proposal were not clearly submitted by AMDER