Ballari's Sandur is set to lose 992 acres of virgin forest for mining amid opposition from the Forest Department, public outcry and a case pending before the High Court of Karnataka for nearly three years. The project proposed by the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company (KIOCL), which DH wrote about on April 19, 2021, has come to the limelight after Union Heavy Industries and Steel Minister H D Kumaraswamy approved it, essentially giving a green signal for operationalising the mine. Virgin forest areas are old growth forests that have remained untouched by humans. Following a ground survey, forest officers had put the number of trees in the 992 acres at 99,000, including "300 types of medicinal plants".#karnataka #sandur #forest #sandurforest #stop #cuttingtrees #environment #activist