Restoring Ballari: Even NMDC falters

Ballari: Although the Supreme Court has ordered mining companies to repair the damage they have done to the environment, the public sector National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), has made little headway on this front.

The company, which operates the Donimalai  and Kumaraswamy iron ore mines in Sandur forests, was exempted from the mining ban imposed by the  court in 2011,  to make sure the steel industry did not go without raw  material, but  it was asked to implement the  Reclamation and Rehabilitation (R andR) plan. Under the plan the mines are expected to install boundary pillars,  develop a green belt and a  plantation along the lease boundary, and build settling tanks, check dams and gully checks,among other things to help contain the damage done to the environment by years of unbridled mining.

When lifting the ban on mining, the Surpreme Court had made it clear that the mines had to have their R and R plans approved by its Central Empowered Committee (CEC) before re-starting their operations.

But of  the  115 mining leases in the forests here, R and R plans have been prepared for only 90 by the Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education. The NMDC’s mines are not among them.

" It has been almost three years since the R and R plan of other private miners have been submitted , but NMDC’s plans have not yet been finalised and approved," points out Mr Iqbal Khan Pulli, member of the Samaj Parivartan Samuday.  NMDC  sources say the company has submitted its R and R plan for approval to the CEC but it has not been okayed yet.