By Sylvanus Viashima in Jalingo
The Chairman Taraba State taskforce on illegal mining and felling of tress General Jeremiah Faransa on Wednesday day said that the activities of illegal miners in the state have caused irreversible damage to the environment, making it susceptible to global warming and climate change.
Faransa who disclosed this while briefing journalists in his office noted that the unfortunate realities of the damage to the environment has started manifesting following the long draught that was experienced in the State in August.
He warn that if drastic measures are not taken expediently, the levels of desert encroachment on the state would be worst than Borno State in a few years to come.
He disclosed that the 21 forest reserves in the State have been reduced to nothing with some turned to farm lands or illegal mining sites.
“The level of destruction done to the state can never be undone. All the 21 forest reserves have been destroyed. Some have become farm lands or mining sites. If you go to most of the sites, you will shed tears at the magnitude of damage done to the environment.
“The law provides that, if you excavate for mining, you must cover up at least 80% of the excavation afterwards. None of the miners is doing that. Even the Corporate Social Responsibility that they owe the host communities is relegated to irrelevance to them. Most of them are foreigners who don’t even have the right papers to be in the country.
“Our operations is based on environmental protection, and public safety. We would not want what happened in Ogoni land to happen to Taraba.
“The reality of climate change and global warming is staring us in the face and we must face the reality and take proactive measures urgently. We have witnessed it this year and if we don’t do the needful now, Taraba may become worst than Maiduguri in terms of desert encroachment.
“We are not stopping investors in the mining sector from coming. We just want to ensure that things are done right and we would soon come out with guidelines that miners must follow.
“I hear the outcry that we are arresting people with charcoal. Yes. We are arresting charcoal because people are coming from Abuja to park it there for their business. And so several trucks of charcoal are leaving the state. We don’t have issues with charcoal that is meant use in Taraba. But we can not encourage indiscriminate falling of trees just because someone somewhere wants to make profit” he said.
