World Environment Day: Three ore-rich districts hope for new lease life this year

World Environment Day: Three ore-rich districts hope for new lease life this year

By Shivakumar G Malagi

June 4: Human habitations affected by serious ill-effects of open cast ore mining in Bellary-Hospet, Chitradurga and Tumkur district for over a decade hope for a new lease of life on this year’s World Environment Day unlike any year before.

Successive governments in state unarguably controlled by strong mining lobby have remained a silent spectator for a decade long exploitation of Mother-Earth for digging ore with a least concern for environment and human life settled around the mining zones until the intervention of the Supreme Court into state’s rampant illegal mining case last year.

  

Responding to the long-time public outcry for conserving environment and improving basic conditions for human living in hazardous mining zones; the apex court constituted Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has recommended a Comprehensive Environment Plan for Mining Impact Zone (CEPMIZ) for areas prone to serious ill-effects of mining in three ore-rich districts.

Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Dehradun, outsourced by the state government will prepare CEPMIZ for the areas surrounding the mining leases in addition to the Reclamation and Rehabilitation Plan for mining leases and as well as for the areas found to be under illegal mining. Experts from the ICFRE have already reached the mining fields in Bellary for preparing R&R Plan.

According to the 13^th February report of the CEC; the CEPMIZ will comprise of Bio-Diversity Conservation Plan, Afforestation and Soil and Water Conservation Plan, Physical Infrastructure Development Plan for improving the quality of the existing roads, construction of new roads, railway siding, railways connectivity, aerial transportation, water and power infrastructure etc and associated techno-feasibility studies. Social Infrastructure Plan for schools/colleges, hospitals, skill training institutes, livelihood etc and Regional Monitoring Plan and Mechanism.

The CEPMIZ will be implemented under the overall guidelines and supervision of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and the Monitoring Committee and by utilizing the funds released for this purpose by the SPV under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to the state government with the officers of the concerned departments of the State government for the purpose of taking various ameliorative and mitigative measures in three mineral rich districts.

Highly placed official sources said the CEPMIZ will be based on the findings and recommendations made in macro-level Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study, commissioned by the apex court and prepared by ICFRE in November last year.

From “drastic changes” in surface topography due to the excavation, dumping and transport of ore, to alterations in rainfall and temperature brought on by the loss of vegetation; the colonisation of invasive species such as lantana in natural habitats, and the infusion of heavy metals in groundwater, the report paints a stark picture of ecological devastation in Bellary, Tumkur and Chitradurga.

Significant recommendation in EIA report as far as mining ravaged Bellary is concerned that the district should reduce production of iron ore to 25 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from its peak of 41.5 mt that would go a long way in reducing the damage to environment in Bellary, while fixed 5 million tones per annum for both Chitradurga and Tumkur.

ICFRE chief V K Bahuguna speaks:

Director-General of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) V.K. Bahuguna, who lead the EIA team to Bellary, spoke to Deccan Chronicle the significance of his recommendations on “sustainable and scientific” mining that would cause very minimum damage to environment.

He said,  if the recommendations of the ICFRE report are implemented in its true spirit, mining operations can be carried out and a win-win situation would emerge not only in Bellary but also elsewhere in Karnataka and the country.

“By sustainable mining we mean the exploitation of mineral resources in accordance with established scientific prescriptions with minimum environmental damage. In nutshell, it is an activity related to extraction of mineral ores in a manner which is ecologically sustainable, socially acceptable, economically viable, and technically and administratively feasible.