Panel says no, but Ramesh okays mines for SAIL

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh has overruled the statutory Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) and approved diversion of 595 hectares of forestland for mining in Chiria, Jharkhand, to maharatna company, the Steel Authority of India (SAIL).

Updated on: Feb 9, 2011, 23:09:36 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Environment minister Jairam Ramesh has overruled the statutory Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) and approved diversion of 595 hectares of forestland for mining in Chiria, Jharkhand, to maharatna company, the Steel Authority of India (SAIL).

This is for the third time Ramesh has overruled FAC. He had refused approval to Renuka Dam in Himachal Pradesh, which FAC approved, and then agreed to Posco Steel Plant in Orissa, which FAC had rejected.

"The FAC will continue to focus single-mindedly on forest related, bio-diversity-related issues and concerns, while as minister I will have to necessarily to take a broader view but placing on public record in a complete manner the reasons for taking that view," Ramesh said, in his order approving Chiria mines for SAIL.

The environment minister also tried to shrug off allegations of his interference in FAC by saying, he had made no effort whatsoever to interfere in its functioning. "I have gone out of my way to ensure that it functions professionally and in an independent manner," he said.

The Chiria mine complex covers around 2,376 hectares, about three percent of total Sardana forest area. Permission was sought for about 25 % of the total Chiria mining area, which Ramesh granted with 13 environmental conditions including non-mining to be shifted to non-forest areas and no forest roads will be used during night hours. Earlier, SAIL got forest clearance for two mines in the area in 1998.

Ramesh, who had been under fire for blocking projects, overruled FAC on the ground of SAIL’s good track record on corporate social responsibility and its Rs 18,000 crore Initial Public Offer, of which 50 % will accrue to the Central government.

"Chiria is a left wing extremist affected region with a substaintial tribal population. CSR activities by SAIL could help in the socio-economic development of this region, particularly as far as the Ho tribal communities are concerned," the minister said.

He had directed SAIL to invest two percent of total investment for betterment of locals, especially the youth. Apart from this, Rs 20 crore will have to be spent on local forest conservation and wildlife plan will have to prepared with the help of Wildlife Institute of India and Wildlife Trust of India.

Drawing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the approval order, the minister said the PM had written to Jharkhand Chief Minister in 2007 requesting for renewal of mining leases in Chiria in the "broader national interest".

Chiria mines are important for SAIL as in the next 50 years around 40 % of the iron ore requirement of the company will come from Chiria mines. "This is the only compact deposit available to SAIL," the minister's approval letter said.

The minister also believed that existing steel plants Bokaro, Burnpur, Durgapur and Rourkela will necessarily have to be run from iron ore from Chiria once the mines presently feeding them are depleted in 10-12 years.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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