At Rajasthan’s Bharatpur wildlife sanctuary, a patch of land is set to be denotified to allow mining of its unique pink sandstone. The sandstone has been sourced as the exclusive material for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) recently warned Congress, which is in power in Rajasthan, against blocking of this standstone. Soon, the state government sought clearance from the Centre on “highest priority”.
According to a report by Indian Express, more than 1 lakh cubic feet of the standstone found in Bansi Paharpur block of Bharatpur’s Band Baretha wildlife sanctuary has been sourced for the temple.
Illegal operations continued in the area after no mining was allowed after 2016 and the sandstone was available in the grey market. IIT-Chennai and Larsen and Toubro are broadly involved in looking after the construction of the temple.
Champat Rai, the general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust and a senior functionary of the VHP, said that around 10,000 copper rods will be used in the construction of the temple and since people want to be a part of the construction process, they can do so by donating copper.
Source: India Times
