On Valentine’s Day, as the environment minister Veerappa Moily chatted with heads of leading companies including Essar oil and Essar Foundation, Greenpeace India activists staged a peaceful protest at the National convention organised by UN Global Compact Network at Hotel ITC Maurya Sheraton in New Delhi. Dressed in tiger suits, the activists held placards that said ‘Essar loves Moily, Axes Forests’.
The protest comes two days after the MoEF granted Stage II forest clearance to Mahan coal block. Since his appointment late last year, the minister, who also holds the petroleum and natural gas portfolio has been blatantly granting clearances to big ticket projects with no regard to the impact they would have on the environment or on communities that stand to lose their livelihoods.