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Judgment
The residents of village Kantipal, Sub Division Anandpur, District Keonjhar Odisha have sent the present letter petition, which is treated and registered as Original Application, complaining that mining mafia has encroached upon and is carrying on illegal mining in land measuring about 500 hectares and is digging and blasting the stones from the side of hill located at Kantipal Gram Panchayat causing environmental pollution and ecological degradation. Valuable trees have also been cut by the mining mafia without taking prior permission of the Forest Department.
Vide order dated 06.09.2022, this Tribunal constituted a Joint Committee comprising of representative of Director Geology, Steel and Mining, State Pollution Control Board, Odisha (State PCB), DFO Keonjhar and District Magistrate, Keonjhar and directed the same to submit its report within one month.
In compliance of order dated 06.09.2022, report of the Joint Committee has been filed by the Member Secretary, Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) vide letter dated 20.12.2022. Relevant part of the same is reproduced as under:-
“Joint enquiry report in connection with OA No. 553/2022 filed by Bira Kishore Das &others - Vrs. - State of Odisha & others before the Hon'ble National Green Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi.
In pursuance to order dated 06.09.2022 in connection with OA No. 553/2022 filed by Sri Bira Kishore Das &others - Vrs.-State of Odisha & others before the Hon’ble National Green Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi, a committee has been constituted with the following members;
The Collector & District Magistrate, Keonjhar.
The Divisional Forest Officer, Keonjhar Wildlife Division, Anandapur.
The Joint Director, Geology, Keonjhar.
The Regional Officer, State Pollution Control Board, Keonjhar.
Based on letter of the Collector & District Magistrate, Keonjhar vide No. 2305 dt. 01.10.2022 and subsequent Letter No. 1886 dt. 09.11.2022 of the Regional Officer, State Pollution Control Board, Keonjhar, a field visitto Kantipal Stone Quarryarea was conducted on 14.11.2022 with the following officials. The applicant Sri Bira Kishore Das was present during the field visit.
Shri Abhay Kumar Dalai, OFS-Gr.A (SB), Divisional Forest Officer, Keonjhar Wildlife Division, Anandapur.
Shri Anil Kumar Sethy, OAS, Sub-Collector, Anandapur.
Shri Prasanta Kar, Regional Officer, State Pollution Control Board, Keonjhar.
Shri Rajat Kumar Kar, Joint Director Geology, Keonjhar.
Shri Sumit Mohanty, Forest Range Officer, Hadagarh Wildlife Range.
Observations
Location
(i) The major quarry pits of affected area are located over Plot No. 2524 under Khata No. 863 of Kantipal Mouza under Anandapur Tahasil having a total area of 41.45 acre.
(ii) Three major mining pits along with several manual quarry pits were noticed in the said site. The total area of the three major mining pits was approximately 0.93 ha. (photograph of quarry pit location enclosed)
(iii) The manual quarry pits are spread over the adjacent hillock existing in South & South-West direction of the Plot No. 2524 under Khata No. 863 of Kantipal Mouza.
(iv) The major mining pits are about 1.26 km. away from the boundary of Hadagarh Wildlife Sanctuary, about 0.76 km. away from the boundary of proposed Eco-sensitive Zone and 1.18 km. away from the proposed Tiger Corridor as intimated by Addl. Director General of Forests (Project Direct) & Member Secretary (NTCA) vide his Letter No. 1-8/2012 - NTCA dated 29.04.2012 (photograph showing distance of quarry pits from boundary of Hadagarh Wildlife Sanctuary, proposed Eco-sensitive Zone & Tiger Corridor enclosed).
Mining activities
(i) As per the available records of the Tahasildar, Anandapur Tahasil, the Kantipal Stone Quarry was the permanent Sairat source for quarrying stone which was being given to the lease holders from 1990 to 2014-15.
(ii) The details of auction & lease of Kantipal Stone Quarry to various lessee as communicated vide Letter No. 5213 dt. 09.12.2022 of the Tahasildar, Anandapur Tahasil which is enclosed as ANNEXURE-I.
(iii) Apart from above three maior quarry pits several nos. of manual quarry pits are existing and operated for production of hand broken chips/metals by the local villagers for their livelihood.
(iv) The SEIAA, Odisha vide Letter No. 2457/SEIAA dt. 27.01.2017 has rejected the environmental clearance on the ground that, the mine is located within the Eco-sensitive Zone (default-10 km.) of Hadagarh Wildlife Sanctuary and subsequently the Sairat sources got closed permanently.
(v) No mining activities was observed during the field visit but it seems that, there was some illegal extraction of stones from those quarry pits in past and it was confirmed by the Tahasildar, Anandapur Tahasil and the Inspector-in-Charge, Anandapur Police Station that, they used to collect penalty from the illegal miners as and when caught during enforcement.
Clearance status
(i) The Tahasildar, Anandapur Tahasil auctioned those quarry pits to different lease holders from time to time which was continued upto 2014-15.
(ii) No Consent to Establish and Consent to Operate has been granted to said Kantipal Stone Quarry by the State Pollution Control Board, Odisha.
Eco-sensitive Zone details
(i) In obedience to the judgement passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, a Draft Notification has been issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Govt. of India vide S.O. No. 505(E) dated 29.01.2019 (copy enclosed as ANNEXURE-II).
Recommendations
In v ie w o f th e f ac ts n ar r a te d a b o v e , th e C o mmi t te e recommends the followings to avoid any illegal mining activities in the area;
(i) Till final Notification of Eco-sensitive Zone by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Govt. of India, no mining activities shall be permitted in the said area of Kantipal.
(ii) The Tahasildar, Anandapur shall ensure that, there should not be any illegal mining activities in the locality by isolating the site.
(iii) The Forest Department may take up Soil & Moisture Conservation Work as a remedial measure for rejuvenating the area by recharging the ground water.”
We have gone through the original application and the report of the Joint Committee.
In its report the Joint Committee has mentioned that no mining activities were observed during the field visit although illegal mining had already taken place and the Joint Committee has made recommendations regarding not permitting mining activities, stopping of illegal mining and taking of remedial measures for rejuvenating the area by recharging the ground water. None has appeared for the applicant and the concerned State Authorities today and the observations and recommendations made in the report of the Joint Committee are not objected to by anyone. Therefore, we accept the report of the Joint Committee. Accordingly order is passed in terms of under section 15 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 and the State of Odisha and the concerned Authorities are directed to ensure that no mining activities are permitted in the area and appropriate steps are taken for preventing illegal mining and also for carrying out soil and moisture conservation work as recommended by the Joint Committee.
The District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police, District Keonjhar, Odisha are directed to take all requisite measures for preventing illegal mining in the area in accordance with law and directions already issued by Hon’ble Supreme Court and this Tribunal in this regard.
The application is disposed of with the directions as mentioned above.
A copy of this order be sent to the Chief Secretary, Government of Odisha, the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police, District Keonjhar, Odisha by email for requisite compliance.