Friday, 06 Jan 2012
Business Standard reported that the macro level Environment Impact Assessment Study conducted by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education in the mining areas of Chitradurga and Tumkur in view of the illegal iron ore mining, has recommended extraction of iron ore to 5 million tonnes per annum while in its earlier report on Bellary it had recommended for extraction of 25 million tonnes from Bellary district.
The ICFRE has said the ceiling of 5 million tonnes should be permitted provided all environmental and other safeguards are in place and due diligence is exercised by all the agencies concerned.
Taking into account the prevailing situation and demand of iron ore in India, it concluded that only 30 million tonne of iron ore should be extracted in Karnataka.
ICFRE also said that “There is a need to have an independent assessment of the ore reserves in individual mines and a stringent review of the environmental safeguards installed by the mine before raising the limits of annual extraction of ore. IBM has to keep in mind the ‘inter-generation equity’ while giving its consent for mining as iron ores are finite resources.”
The study also suggested that IBM must fix an annual cap on ore extraction from the area, keeping in view not only the ore availability but also the ecological sustainability of the area.
It said that the extraction of each mine within the area must be fine tuned to remain within the overall limit fixed for the zone. Over extraction should be severely penalized. The lessee must extract almost a uniform quantity of ore over the lease period which is generally 20 years.
The ICFRE submitted its report on Chitradurga and Tumkur to the Supreme Court in December 2011. The apex court is likely to resume hearing on illegal mining case on January 20th 2012.
(Sourced from BS)
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