Outspoken environmentalist group, Greenpeace has said on Wednesday that mining activities in the country has threatened forests and wildlife.

The group is urging for a moratorium on new coal projects in the country and has cited evidence of the harm caused by mining activities to the wildlife. Greenpeace campaigner Ashish Fernandes said that coal mine lease area and coal production capacity has almost doubled between 2007 and 2011.

The group has released a new report titled, "How Coal Mining is Trashing Tigerland", showing how the coal mines are affecting tiger populations across 1.1 million hectares of forest in 13 coalfields in the central parts of the country. The report has shown maps of the 13 coalfields with forest cover, protected area boundaries and the latest government data on tiger, elephant and leopard presence.

Mr. Fernandes said that all of the coal mines as well as some of planed power project sites are located in central part of the country in states including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and parts of Odisha and eastern Maharashtra. Such activities threaten the tiger population in the country. He said that about 35 percent of the country's tiger population.

"If India continues its reliance on coal to meet its energy needs, the destruction already seen in these areas will be multiplied exponentially across much of central India," he said.