Karnataka: Sandur residents demand MoEF not to gloss over mining hazards

The residents of Sandur severely affected by pollution due to mining have written to the Union environment ministry expressing concern over the failure of its officers to capture the factual situation, and the lack of action even against the watered-down version of the findings.

Under the banner of Janasangrama Parishath, the villagers wrote to the Deputy Inspector General of Forests at the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

Sreeshaila Aladahalli and Rajesh Ramakrishnan, who signed the letter, referred to the site inspection report by Dola Bhattacharjee, a scientist from the ministry who conducted the site inspection following complaints against operations by the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC).

In particular, the Parishath raised concern over the characterisation of “a number of violations” as “minor” violations in the inspection report. “We note from the site inspection report that there has been non-compliance with the Environment Clearance conditions which endanger public health and safety. These instances of non-compliance can in no way be described as minor,” it said.

The villagers also questioned the casual approach adopted in the inspection report. “Para V on Page 9 of the report says the conveyor belt is not in operation, but does not say since when,” they noted, alleging that the conveyor belt was constructed without the necessary clearances.

They demanded a thorough analysis of the air quality, noting that the company has installed three continuous air quality monitoring systems (CAAQMS) against the requirement of “at least four” and the ministry’s scientist ruled the air quality as within the prescribed norms based on the data from manual air quality monitors that are much less accurate than CAAQMS.

“These constitute non-compliance with EC conditions which are harmful to human health and cannot be termed ‘minor’,” they said.

The Parishath described “factually incorrect” the scientist’s declaration that there was no village near the mining lease area.

“The statement, ‘No human settlement was observed within or in the immediate vicinity of the ML area’ is factually incorrect. Kamaturu village is about 300 metres from the ML boundary and Devagiri village is about 500-600 metres from the boundary,” it said.

Noting that the scientist acknowledged that “noticeable dust persists” along some of the road stretches passing through villages used by the trucks to transport ore, the Parishath argued that it was misleading to declare the air quality as acceptable based on reading from one CAAQMS that can’t pick up the pollution on these roads.

Aladahalli, speaking to DH, noted that while the inspection report acknowledges that relevant facts “may not have been fully presented” by the NMDC, it glosses over the matter. “The site inspection report failed to capture the reality and glossed over even the violations it chose to record. However, we have not been made aware of the recommendations made. We have requested the ministry officials to give us an opportunity to explain the factual situation,” he said.