<p>Bengaluru: An expert committee of the Ministry of Union Environment has approved a proposal by the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL) to explore iron and manganese ore in 160 acres of reserved forest in the arid Chitradurga district.</p>.<p>Located in Holalkere range, the 160-acre forest is part of the 9,749.44 acres Nirthadi Reserve Forest notified by the erstwhile Mysore government in 1939. During the exploration stage, the KIOCL will cut down over 700 trees.</p>.<p>The area is home to leopard, sloth bear, jackal, pangolin, hare, wild bore, porcupine, monitor lizard, peafowl and grey partridge among other fauna recorded in the area.</p>.KIOCL gets 2 years to begin mining at Devadari.<p>In its application, the company stated that the mine block in the reserve forest was not explored fully in the past to assess the available resources. "Further prospecting is required to estimate quantity and grade of the mineral deposit in order to assess the potentiality. Thus, undertaking in forest land has become inevitable," the proposal said.</p>.<p>The Regional Empowered Committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, while approving the project, fixed the initial deadline for works at six months extendable up to another six months.</p>.<p>The exploration involves digging 24 pits of 1-metre deep and drilling of 34 boreholes of 4-inch diameter to a depth of 60 to 100 metres for the technical assessments. </p>
<p>Bengaluru: An expert committee of the Ministry of Union Environment has approved a proposal by the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL) to explore iron and manganese ore in 160 acres of reserved forest in the arid Chitradurga district.</p>.<p>Located in Holalkere range, the 160-acre forest is part of the 9,749.44 acres Nirthadi Reserve Forest notified by the erstwhile Mysore government in 1939. During the exploration stage, the KIOCL will cut down over 700 trees.</p>.<p>The area is home to leopard, sloth bear, jackal, pangolin, hare, wild bore, porcupine, monitor lizard, peafowl and grey partridge among other fauna recorded in the area.</p>.KIOCL gets 2 years to begin mining at Devadari.<p>In its application, the company stated that the mine block in the reserve forest was not explored fully in the past to assess the available resources. "Further prospecting is required to estimate quantity and grade of the mineral deposit in order to assess the potentiality. Thus, undertaking in forest land has become inevitable," the proposal said.</p>.<p>The Regional Empowered Committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, while approving the project, fixed the initial deadline for works at six months extendable up to another six months.</p>.<p>The exploration involves digging 24 pits of 1-metre deep and drilling of 34 boreholes of 4-inch diameter to a depth of 60 to 100 metres for the technical assessments. </p>