PANAJI: The National Green Tribunal’s western zone bench has admitted two appeals challenging the central government’s decision in January this year to grant environmental clearance to Goa’s Bicholim I mining block, the first to commence operations after Goa re-started mining auctions in 2022.
Vedanta Ltd won the right to exploit the Bicholim mineral block in the December 2022 auction and started operations earlier this year after the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change granted environmental clearance on January 23 this year.
In separate petitions, activist Swapnesh Sherlekar and the Federation of Rainbow Warriors, an activist collective, however, questioned the grounds on which the central government had approved the mining project.
After hearing both sides, a bench of judicial member Dinesh Kumar Singh and expert member Dr. Vijay Kulkarni passed separate orders to admit the two appeals. “Having heard both the sides and considering the grounds raised in the appeal, we are of the view that this appeal needs to be admitted and accordingly, it is admitted. We direct the Registry to issue notice to the respondents, returnable within four weeks,” the bench said in its order on Sherlekar’s appeal.
The appeals alleged that the Environmental Impact Assessment report incorrectly classified the mining block as a “greenfield project”, the ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) could not have ignored the recommendation to build an Over Land Belt Conveyor for material handling and increasing efficiency of trucks used for transporting the ore, and that the approval was granted without a Wildlife Conservation Plan approved by the Chief Wildlife Warden though 29 species of animals have been recorded within 10 km of the project area.
{{/usCountry}}The appeals alleged that the Environmental Impact Assessment report incorrectly classified the mining block as a “greenfield project”, the ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) could not have ignored the recommendation to build an Over Land Belt Conveyor for material handling and increasing efficiency of trucks used for transporting the ore, and that the approval was granted without a Wildlife Conservation Plan approved by the Chief Wildlife Warden though 29 species of animals have been recorded within 10 km of the project area.
{{/usCountry}}Sherlekar elaborated in his appeal. “The proposed mining is being categorised as “green field project” in the EIA report erroneously despite the fact that mining activity of this lease area has been carried out for seven decades since 1941. By mislabeling the project in question as “greenfield,” it has entitled the project proponent to use baseline data from 2023, which has skewed the entire EIA report,” the plea said. Rainbow Warriors echoed this point in their report.
“The (MoEF&CC) Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) has ignored the fact that the erstwhile lease (now called ‘block’) was given an EC on 17.11.2005, which had recorded that the mine would be exhausted in ten years with an annual production of 2 MTPA. The 2005 EC required a mine closure plan and several other requirements to be met during the conduct of mining operations, but the EAC has not reviewed the 2005 EC before grant of the impugned EC,” the appeal alleged.
During the proceedings, Shivshankar Swaminathan who appeared for Vedanta, told the tribunal that a petition was filed before the High Court of Bombay flagging issues relating to the transportation of the iron ore and the high court had already ruled on the topic on August 29, 2024, and that this matter could not be raised in this appeal
A Vedanta spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment on this story