Activist Brikesh Singh, who had launched a protest on September 1 against coal mining at the expense of forests by staying in a tree-house located on the fringes of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) here, today climbed down the tree.
The activist claimed that in the past one month he had managed to collect signatures online of around 1.13 lakh people in support of the cause he had taken up.
He said he would now hand over their demands along with the signatures to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who will be attending the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad this month.
"Lakhs of hectares of forests are facing destruction from coal mining throughout the central India. A month on the tree made me realise that our forests give us infinite resources and millions of Indians want them to be saved. It does not make sense to destroy them for finite coal, which will only last a few years and will impose huge costs on society," Singh said.
After descending from the tree, Brikesh led a cycle rally to the nearby abandoned Durgapur Opencast Mines of Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL), located on the outskirts of village Sinhala.
Brikesh and other volunteers also held a 135-feet fabric poster asking coal companies to stay away from the forests and also held placards with message- 'Stop Forest Destruction'.
"I am grateful to the people for their overwhelming support to the cause of saving forests. The local people were quite helpful and a little over 1,000 people visited me during my month
