World’s largest tiger reserve being ravaged by Burmese junta’s greed for gold
A new report, Valley of Darkness, by undercover local researchers exposes how Burma’s military junta is promoting extensive gold-mining in the Hugawng Valley Tiger Reserve in northern Kachin State.
The junta has expanded military control of the valley and sold off vast tracts as gold-mining concessions. The valley’s forests and waterways are now being ravaged by over 100 hydraulic and pit mines, using mechanized pumps and dredges and dumping mercury-contaminated tailings. Thousands of desperate migrants from all over Burma are working in squalid mining communities throughout the once pristine valley, where drug addiction and HIV/AIDS have become rampant.
The US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, which jointly established the Hugawng Valley Tiger Reserve, is claiming that Burma’s junta has almost completely closed down the gold-mining industry in the valley. This report proves otherwise.
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