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No need to cap iron ore mining in Odisha, Centre tells top court
The ministry relied on the recommendation of a special expert appraisal committee (SEAC) made on September 12, 2023, to take its stand
There is no need for a ceiling on mining iron ore in Odisha as more than 70% of its ore areas remain unexplored, the Union environment ministry has told the Supreme Court, which on December 4 wanted to know if a limit, such as the ones imposed in Karnataka and Goa, was warranted, after concerns were raised about fast-depleting reserves in the eastern state in a public interest litigation.
In a reply filed on Monday, the ministry said he area under iron ore exploration in the state was only 28% at present. The affidavit, however, said a detailed environment impact assessment study should be undertaken by the Odisha government to estimate the impact on the natural environment.
The ministry relied on the recommendation of a special expert appraisal committee (SEAC) made on September 12, 2023, to take its stand. The affidavit quoting the minutes of meeting said, “At present, there is no need for capping of iron ore mining in the state of Odisha. Issue of capping the production may be examined when the production reaches near the carrying capacity as assessed by NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) as well as detailed information from macro-level study on a landscape level regarding impact on biological environment on a time scale are assessed.”
The response came in a PIL filed by NGO Common Cause, which raised similar concerns in Karnataka, where illegal mining on a large scale destroyed forests and caused long-term devastation of natural resources. On December 4, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud had sought the ministry’s response as it was not convinced by an affidavit filed by mines ministry opposing any limit.
The latest affidavit echoed the sentiment expressed by the mines ministry but went a step further. “The Odisha government may engage a reputed organisation to conduct a macro-level EIA (environmental impact assessment) study on air, water, landscape, forest, wildlife (specifically on elephants), and ore transportation to estimate carrying capacity of iron ore producing areas,” it said.
The ministry accepted the recommendations made by the SEAC, which provided data in support of its findings.
The report of SEAC showed that the identified iron ore area in Odisha is 3,331 sq km, out of which the area covered under exploration is 948.804 sq km, which was a little over 28% of the geological potential. “As such, 71.52% of iron ore containing area of the state is yet to be geologically explored to estimate the iron ore resource of the state,” the affidavit citing the SEAC report said.
There are 58 working mines in the state with total area of over 209 sq km, of which 153 sq km has been undertaken for exploration so far. Odisha accounts for 57% of the country’s iron ore production. Production in the state has increased from 3,789 million tonne in 2000 to 9,737 million tonne last year.
The petition said that if mining continues at the current rate, the reserves in the working mining leases would last for only around 20 years. The state government had informed the court that the current per capita consumption of steel in India is 77.2 kg, which is much lower than the global per capita average consumption of 208 kg. By 2030-31, India’s consumption is estimated to increase to 150 kg, still lower than the global average.
The mines ministry in its affidavit had said, “If there is a capping on production of iron ore, then it may distort the mineral production and supply in favour of the existing lessees...This may raise the price of minerals thereby raising the input cost for downstream industries and having a cascading impact on overall inflation.”
“Putting a cap on production of a mineral in a particular state, which is resource rich in that commodity, will jeopardise the economic development of the nation, mineral availability for the downstream industries and the requirement to subserve the huge population base of the country,” it had said.
