province of Sindh Cabinet of Thar Parker Karunjhar mountain range offorest of life It has decided to ban the mining of granite in ‘safe haven’.
After the cabinet’s decision, the Sindh Wildlife Protection Department also announced that no mining will be allowed in the Karunjhar mountain range.
After the Sindh Cabinet meeting under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday, while holding a press conference with Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, Sindh Minister for Development and Minerals Syed Sardar Ali Shah said that the cabinet unanimously approved Karunjhar mountain. Decided to keep it completely safe.
Syed Sardar Ali Shah said that during the previous caretaker government, a lot of confusion was created and the issue was made controversial that the Sindh government wanted to cut the Karunjhar Hill.
He said that ‘Pakistan People’s Party’s Sindh government does not want mining on Karunjhar.’
According to Syed Sardar Ali Shah: ‘The People’s Party is of the view that there can be no development without the will of the local people. All mountains attached to Karunjhar will remain intact, none will be mined of any kind.
‘The mountain of Karunjhar will always remain, we love Karunjhar. The entire area of Nangar Park including Karunjhar Hill, including Bhodesar, is a Chorio Protected Wildlife Sanctuary.
Karunjhar is not just a stone name, Karunjhar has a history and religious beliefs. No development is possible without the consent of the local people.’
According to Syed Sardar Ali Shah, rain water comes from the small peaks of Karunjhar hill and fills the small and big dams built by the Sindh government in Parker and with this water there is agriculture in Parker.
According to Syed Sardar Ali Shah: ‘Estimate the agriculture happening there by the fact that last year five billion rupees were obtained from onion production in this area.’
According to Minister of Development, Minerals Sindh, no mining is going on in any part of Karunjhar mountain at present. “There is only Kharsar site which was first leased to a company called Koh Noor in the year 2000 but later leased to Frontier Works Organisation. There is still mining going on.’
The Kharsar site is located near Veera Wah, 25 km from the Karunjhar mountains. This site is also included in the ‘protected wildlife sanctuaries’.
According to Syed Sardar Ali Shah: ‘A committee will be formed on the lease at the Kharsar site, comprising representatives of the Wildlife Department, Forest Department, IUCN and WWF, which will review the lease. will
“A decision will be made on the recommendations of the committee whether to cancel or continue the lease.”
For the last few years, protests have been going on in Sindh over the quarrying of granite from Karunjhar.
The Karunjhar range is located in the Parker section of Tharparkar district. The Indian state of Gujarat is located across the Indian border from this unique mountain range.
The confluence of ancient human civilizations of Indian Gujarat, Rajasthan and the Mehran Valley, Karunjhar is spread over an area of 23 km which is richer in wildlife, herb and plant species than any other region of Sindh and potentially It can be given the status of National Park.
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Karunjhar is also important because it is the confluence of mountains, run-off and sandy Thar.
Karunjhar is a mountain range consisting of red granite stones, which looks red, but according to local people, apart from white and black stones, stones of five colors are found here.
These colorful granite stones are used in house tiles and construction. The stone from here is more valuable than the granite from other parts of Pakistan.
Granite has been extracted from the Karunjhar mountain since 1979, but in 2006, during the regime of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, granite extraction accelerated following the construction of the road to Thar and especially to Nagarpakar.
The Sindh High Court has twice ruled once morest the extraction of granite from Karunjhar. The caretaker Sindh government appealed to the Supreme Court once morest the decision of the Sindh High Court, which is yet to be decided.
After an appeal in the Supreme Court, the caretaker government sought a report on Karunjhar from the wildlife department, in which the wildlife department clearly stated that Karunjhar was declared a ‘wildlife sanctuary’ where any species Cannot be mined.
On Thursday, the Sindh Cabinet confirmed the report and announced that no mining will be allowed in Karunjhar.
According to Syed Sardar Ali Shah, the Sindh government will submit a report to the Supreme Court that Karunjhar and Nangarparkar are protected areas, which the Supreme Court will also declare as protected areas.
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2024-07-12 05:13:43