Context: Recently, the Chhattisgarh government is facing objections from its own legislators, including a minister, to its plan to further decrease the area of the proposed Lemru Elephant Reserve.

• The government has proposed to decrease the area to 450 sq km as against the previous plan to stretch it to 3,287 sq km from the current 1,995 sq km.

About Lemru Elephant Reserve

• The proposed Lemru elephant reserve is a natural elephant habitat with very few human habitations and has been an elephant bearing area from ancient times.
• The final area proposed for the reserve is 1,995.48 sq km, significantly higher than the 450 sq km proposed earlier.
• The reserve is in a coal-bearing area with an estimated value of Rs 100,000 crore.
• The identified reserve area has very good availability of elephant food and has approximately 27 perennial rivulets of water present inside the forest for the elephants.

Effects of mining in forests area

• The people dwelling in the forests of Surguja, Korba, Jashpur and Raigarh districts in Northern Chhattisgarh have been witnessing the migration of elephants into their forests.
• The rampant open cast mining in Jharkhand had destroyed elephant habitats, which ultimately pushing the pachyderms to the rich forest regions in North Chhattisgarh.
• The mining has driven the elephants in search of new forest territories, which takes them through human-dominated habitats, aggravating incidents of human-elephant interactions that end in injury or death.
• The human-elephant conflict is a symptom of inappropriate land-use practices such as diversion of forest for development and mining activities.
• It leads to loss or fragmentation of elephant habitats and traditional routes which leads to loss of food and water for the elephants in the forest.

Why a new reserve is needed?

• The issue of human-elephant conflict was part of the election discourse in at least the areas that are severely impacted by the human-elephant interaction.
• It is important to restore elephant corridors from the pressure of mining activities in the forest and to mitigate human-elephant interactions in the state.
• It is recommended to adopt an integrated land use planning and emphasis of the state governments should be to take appropriate steps to secure and restore corridors.