Green nod for bauxite mining near marine park.

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has recently given its nod to two Bauxite mining projects, located in close proximity to the Marine National Park and a wildlife sanctuary in Jamnagar.

The first environment clearance has been given to New Delh-based M/s Orient Abrasives Ltd. for quadrupling the production capacity of Nandana bauxite mine from 30,500 tonnes per annum to 128,00 tonnes per annum. The mine lease area of over 50 hectare in Nandana village of Kalyanpur taluka is designated as government waste land and is located approximately 8.88 km from the national park and 10.10 km from Gaga Wildlife Sanctuary. The company was also accorded an environment clearance in February this year for enchancing the production capacity of the Bauxite mine from 63,000 tonnes per annum to 259,000 tonnes per annum in Mewasa village, located 4.5 km from the Marine National Park.

The second clearance - valid for 18 years - was in the name of Nirmalaben S Mehta. It was for the renewal of Mahadevia and Gandhvi bauxite mine, having a production capacity of 0.46 million tonnes per annum. The mine lease area of 168 hectare is spread over two blocks - Mahadevia (103.48 hectare) and Gandhvi (64.83 hectare) in Kalyanpur taluka of Jamnagar district. The mine is located 6.3 kilometer from the Marine National Park and nine km from the sanctuary.

In the past, both these projects (cleared in this month) were embroiled in litigation for violating the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, that includes enhancing production without obtaining environment clearance. These projects have been given the go-ahead by the Ministry after getting written assurances that such violations 'will not be repeated in future', and these projects do not fall under the eco-sensitive zone. However, there are some mining projects that have been noticed to be functioning within the one-kilometer buffer zone surrounding the national park.


THE INDIAN EXPRESS