Jharkhand, a state in India, put off plans of constructing an airport in a bid to protect a crucial elephant corridor.
The to-be constructed Dhalbhumgarh airport needed nearly 1.1 square km of land from forests in Jharkhand that serve as corridors for elephants migrating to and from Jharkhand and the neighbouring state of West Bengal.
The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (India) had set up a panel to discuss the deffering of the airport-construction project, which could lead to an increase in man-elephant conflict, which is one of the major threats to the Indian Elephant, a endangered species according to the IUCN Redlist.
This is what many governments of the world miss. Indeed, development is important, but it should never come in the way of the environment. Jharkhand has taken exemplary action for elephants.