Environment panel refuses expansion of coal mine in Chhattisgarh

An environment ministry committee has declined the expansion of a major mine run by a Coal India subsidiary in Chhattisgarh citing “serious” violation of environmental laws, including not being able to maintain air quality in its area of operation.

Updated on: Aug 11, 2015, 01:12:05 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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An environment ministry committee has declined the expansion of a major mine run by a Coal India subsidiary in Chhattisgarh citing “serious” violation of environmental laws, including not being able to maintain air quality in its area of operation.

The Kasmunda coal mine expansion proposal of South Eastern Coalfields, a Coal India subsidiary, had sought environment approval for a 10-time expansion of its existing mining capacity from six million tonnes per annum.

The request was, however, opposed by local environment groups and the EIA Resource Centre, saying the mining in the area has resulted in high air and water pollution in Korba district of Chhattisgarh, home to a large number of tribals.

The ministry expert appraisal committee on coal mining, in its last meeting, found value in the contention of the NGOs as the project proponent failed to give satisfactory replies to the allegations.

“After detailed deliberation, the EAC recommended that pending a policy decision in respect of violation of environmental laws, duly endorsed by the court of law and also till the infrastructure proposed is put in place, no expansion beyond the sanctioned capacity will be permitted,” the EAC said.

The proposed expansion of the coal mine in the left wing extremism-affected area would result in relocation of 17 villages and impact 135 schools and 90 public health centres in the area.

The company was seeking expansion for the project despite its earlier mining turning Korba into a critically polluted area as per monitoring by the Chhattisgarh Pollution Control Board.

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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