Palamu Tiger Reserve officials have taken up the Burha river issue with the Chhattisgarh forest and environment officials there.
Sources said the deputy director South division of PTR MK Mahaling has sent a letter to chief wildlife warden of Chhattisgarh seeking his co operation and intervention in saving the life of this river Burha.
Sources said the Burha river is facing severe onslaughts of bauxite mining in the Chhatisgarh areas which are the catchment zones of this river.
Burha river is an interstate river connecting Chhatisgarh to Jharkhand. It starts from Seraandag in Chhatisgarh and meets Koyal river in Jharkhand’s Bagey Champa which falls under PTR.
M K Mahaling deputy director South division of PTR said,“I wrote a letter to chief wild life warden of Chhatisgarh urging him to intervene to save this perennial river which is a life line of PTR and its systematic destruction looks most imminent because of rampant bauxite mining in Chhatisgarh areas which are too close to the catchment areas of this river Burha.”
He further said the Chhatisgarh chief wild life warden has assured to look into this issue and is said to have asked his concerned DFO there to see the dimension of bauxite mining going on there.
Burha river in PTR holds a high significance here as two waterfalls Lodh and Sugga Bandh are its added attractions for the tourists.
“ If this river becomes a rivulet and days and time are not much the way this reckless mining of bauxite is so on in Chhatisgarh then these two waterfalls Lodh and Sugga Bandh will be just a stone structure bereft of all scenic appeal and beauty and lots of waters” added Mahaling.
Sources said bauxite mining is done quite deep 20 feet down the earth and as such loss of habitat, soil , water is most inevitable.
There is a strong fear of this river Burha changing its course as well because of this mining nearby. There is just a road between Cheru Kukud in Jharkhand’s wolf sanctuaryMahuadarn and this Chhatisgarh mining areas and so the magnitude of destruction is enormous said sources.
Sources said it is a sheer irony that Burha Pahar sends shivers down the spines of the cops because of its rendezvous of the Maoists and where Maoists most top gun carrying a reward of 1 crore on his head Arvind ji too died,
Due to illness there is this river of the same name Burha for which PTR officials are plling all stops to save this river from getting into just a stream of water!.
A team of senior officials including then chief wild life warden L R Singh, field director PTR M P Singh, M K Mahaling ( South) A K Mishra ( North) had inspected the fall out of this bauxite mining on this river at its Jharkhand end here where sources said the team was concerned for the fate of this river Burha which is facing perilous challenges from bauxite mining in Chhatisgarh.
