Save Electricity, Save Tigers
How an end-user or general public can save a Tiger by just reducing his electricity consumption?
Coal-based thermal power plants in India are heavy utilisers of resources. Land, water and most importantly, coal are used in large quantities. These account for more than 70% of the electricity produced throughout the country.
In addition to the pollution and utilisation of resources, what exacerbates the issue is the poor quality of Indian coal: around a third of the country’s coal content is ash; it also has less calorific value and hence more quantity of coal is needed to be burnt to generate power. The result is more emissions and ash.
Nearly 25% or more of India’s forest land is diverted for some coal activity - mining or dumping etc. This is not considering the radius of influence on the environment and forests due to burning of coal.
On top, the thermal power industry’s annual water draw is estimated at 25 billion cubic metres, which is more than half of India’s total domestic water needs.
As an End User (mostly Urban), if we REDUCE our consumption of electricity, thus, we can thus minimise the trickle-down effect of deforestation and diversion of forest lands as most of the coal formed through the process of coalification is under the Tiger forests.