LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Ranchi, April 19: A group of tribals will meet Governor Ramesh Bais at Raj Bhawan on April 21 to seek his help to ensure the cancellation of the notification of the field firing range in Netarhat.
The tribals will march to the meeting from Tattapani, roughly 200 kilometres from Jharkhand’s capital in the Latehar district. A group in Ranchi will also join them to express their solidarity with them.
The struggle against the range has been ongoing since the 1990s, when the Centre had earmarked about 1,471 sq km in Netarhat Hill in Gumla and Latehar for field firing practice by the army, prior to the creation of what is now known as Jharkhand.
Two state notifications dated November and March 25, 1992, under section 9 (1) of the Manoeuvres Field Firing and Artillery Practices Act, 1938, notified this area for periodical field firing and artillery practice for 10 years. Separate notifications in 1992 and again in 2002, extended the field firing and artillery practice till 2022, as per reports.
Owing to enormous resistance in 1994, practice in the range and the displacement of over 2 lakh tribals across 245 villages was stopped, however, as the deadline for the renewal of the notification nears in 2022, the tribal community on the ground is revamping their struggle.
