Govt panel calls Vedanta mining project illegal
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COMMENTS 
After a stop-work order on the Rs 54,000-crore Posco project, a four-member panel appointed by the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests deals a blow to yet another big-ticket investor in Orissa, the London-based Vedanta Resources Ltd
Vedanta Resources’ plans to extract bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills in Orissa have run into trouble again after a government-appointed panel concluded that the mining proposal should not receive the go-ahead.
The four-member committee, headed by N C Saxena, who is also a member of the powerful National Advisory Council, has told the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) that it would be illegal to allow Vedanta-owned Sterlite Industries to conduct bauxite-mining operations in the Niyamgiri hills in Orissa’s Kalahandi district.
“This committee is of the firm view that allowing mining in the proposed mining lease area by depriving two primitive tribal groups of their rights over the proposed mining site in order to benefit a private firm would shake the faith of tribal people in the laws of the land, which may have serious consequences for the security and wellbeing of the entire country,” the committee said.
It added that the Centre could not grant clearance for use of forestland for non-forest purposes because the legal conditions for such clearance, as laid down by its circular of August 3, 2009, had not yet been met. These include the requirement under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 that the rights of forest-dwellers and tribals need to be settled and their prior consent taken for any project.
The committee was constituted by the MoEF in June last year after a site inspection of the proposed mining lease and adjoining areas found several instances of violation of environmental laws. The refinery was accorded clearance under the Environment Protection Act (EPA) on condition that no forestland would be used. However, it has been established that the company has occupied 26.1 ha of village forestland within the refinery boundary, the report said.
The company says mining is crucial for its Rs 6,000-crore alumina refinery project at Lanjigarh. The panel, which, apart from Saxena, has S Parasuraman, Promode Kant and Amita Baviskar as members, has said existing clearance for the refinery should also be cancelled.
The committee’s mandate was to investigate and ascertain the status of implementation of the Forest Rights Act in and around the project’s proposed area, likely physical and economic displacement due to the project, including the resource displacement of forest users and their rehabilitation plan, likely impact on the cultural and social lives of the primitive Dongria Kondh tribe, and impact on wildlife and ecology of the land.
The report was given to the ministry on August 17, 2010; it is expected to arrive at a decision in about a week. Saxena said the ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee would give its recommendations based on the report, and a final decision taken. The committee gives two strong reasons. One, that permitting bauxite mining would deprive the Dongria and Kutia Kondh of their rights. Two, that Vedanta/Sterlite has consistently violated the EPA, FRA, Forest Conservation Act (FCA) and Orissa Forest Act, in active collusion with state officials.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said: “The Forest Advisory Committee will consider the report on the lines of the FRA and the FCA, but my decision will be based on the totality of the economic decisions. The committee will consider the report on August 20 and make its recommendations to me. The immediate action will be on Stage Two clearances, and it will take six-seven days for the final decision.”
On the finding that the company had, without waiting for all the clearances, been expanding the refinery capacity since 2007, Ramesh said he was surprised to know that expansion had happened and that if this was indeed the case, it was a blatant violation. “It would be a tragedy if someone can just violate the laws and a window is still available to them to pay a penalty and get away with it. But I am not pre-judging this case. Our consideration will be only about the mining in Niyamgiri and not the (alumina) refinery,” the minister said.
Vedanta Executive Chairman Anil Agarwal said: “We have complied with all the guidelines; not a blade of grass has been removed so far. We can only start when we have clearance. The government has to take a call on what is best for the country.”
In 2003, Vedanta Resources signed a memorandum of understanding with the Orissa government for construction of an alumina refinery, a power plant and related mining development in Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district.
Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd, fully owned and controlled by Vedanta Resources, proposes to set up a refinery with a capacity of 1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to process aluminium for export. It also proposes to extract bauxite from the area adjoining the refinery, which is estimated to have approximately 73 million tonnes of mineable ore.
Source: Business Standard, August 17, 2010
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