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BANGALORE: Sher Khan and Baloo emerged out of the bamboo trees in Cubbon Park on Tuesday much to the shock of the visitors. These popular fictional characters from Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ then proceeded to seek the support of visitors to save their natural habitat — forests — from coal mining.To garner more attention to deforestation, a virtual country — Republic of Junglisthan — was launched by Greenpeace India and the mascots handed out virtual citizenships and passports to people who pledged their support for the fast depleting forests and diversity.Mascots for the Greenpeace campaign, Sher Khan and Baloo along with the volunteers of Greenpeace India explained to the people about the exploitation of forests in the name of extraction of coal and asked for their support to save forests.Students from A P D Immanuel School and Wisdom Public School actively participated in the campaign by painting, drawing and enacting skits in support of save the forest campaign.“Coal India Limited already has 200,000 hectares of land, of which 55,000 hectares is forest. Hence their contention that forest clearances are hampering power generation is misleading. The ministry’s insistence on more land for mining is nothing short of land grab, which is also endangering our forests, tigers, elephants and bears, biodiversity and the fabric of life of forest communities. We are inviting people to join Junglistan as a show of support to forests,” said Shiva Sharma, public engagement campaigner, Greenpeace India.“There are alternate sources of energy that are cleaner and sustainable than coal like solar and wind energy. For instance we can save more energy if we can switch over to CFLs instead of energy-guzzling light bulbs. Our country will have to make that choice if it wants a safe environment,” said a student from from Wisdom Public School. The campaign will be on until December 4 on Cubbon Park premises.
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