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Judgment
In this Original Application the Applicant has sought protection of his property, ecology as well as life and health of the people from the illegal soapstone mining activities at Village Jagthali, Kanda and various places in District Bageshwar Uttarakhand by Respondent No. 1.
A Mining lease over 4.313 ha. was sanctioned to Respondent No. 1 by Respondent No. 2 on 4.6.2010. The Applicant has alleged that the mining lease covered the Khasras of land which were in his name were leased out without his consent. He has submitted that when he came to know of the grant of mining lease to Respondent No.1 he made several complaints to the concerned authorities. He has further submitted that the Applicant has destroyed the ecology of his land as well as the adjoining areas by using JCB machines for mining operations. Photographs of the mining operations have also been annexed, wherein JCB machine has shown to have been used in mining operations.
Applicant has prayed as follows:-
a) Direct Respondent No. 1 to pay compensation to the tune of Rs. fifty lakhs to the Applicant for the damages caused to his land/property measuring 0.1830 hectares= 1830 sq. mts.
b) Direct Respondent No.1 to restore the ecology of Applicant's land situated at Village Jagthali, Post Office Kanda, District Bageshwar, Uttarakhand to its original state as it was, prior to the start of the mining activities by Respondent No. 1.
c) Constitute an independent expert committee to inspect the above mentioned mining areas and determine the losses caused to the Environment, biodiversity, forest, public and private land in District Bagehswar.
d) Direct Respondent No. 2 to 7 to appoint experts to inspect all other mines situated in district Bageshwar and take appropriate action and provide medical facilities to the people, found suffering from the after-effects of soapstone mining in their area.
e) Direct the State of Uttarakhand to take necessary steps for cancellation of the mining lease of Respondent No. 1 involved in illegal and unscientific mining on the Applicant's land, in violation of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 as well as the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, the Mineral Concessions Rules, 1960.
f) Direct Respondent No. 1 to stop any and all mining activities underway in any manner whatsoever is undertaken by Respondent No. 1 in the mining lease land including the land of the applicant till the final decision of the Hon'ble Tribunal.
g) And pass such other or further order or orders this Hon'ble Tribunal may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case.
On receiving complaints from the Applicant on 29.9.2014 the Districts Magistrate Bageshwar had a joint inspection conducted on 15.11.2014 by the Revenue and Mining Departments. This inspection was conducted in presence of the Manager of Lessee. Joint Inspection report is placed as Annexure A7 at Page 44. The Report has clearly brought out the following points:-
(i) The Lessee conducted mining in the land of the Applicant without his consent and his land was damaged due to mining activity.
(ii) A total of 0.642 ha. of land which are adjoining the sanctioned mining lease area has been damaged by carrying out illegal and unscientific mining activity.
(iii) There was no demarcation of Mining lease on ground.
(iv) The Lessee was not carrying out the mining activity in accordance with the Mining Plan approved by the Indian Bureau of Mines. It has been pointed out that the depth of the mining pit was more than 15 meter which is against the rules.
(v) The Lessee has constructed a 300 meter long and 3 meter wide road in the forest land using JCB machine by illegally felling trees without any permission.
(vi) It has therefore, been recommended that action according to rules be taken.
It appears that another joint inspection was done on 11.3.2015, as ordered by the District Magistrate Bageshwar on 9.3.2015. This inspection was done by a team of Revenue and Mining Departments led by the Deputy Collector Bagehswar to inspect the Mining lease issued in favour of one Pankaj Bhatt in Village Toli, Jagthali and Delmel. The Joint Inspection Report is annexed as Annexure A8 at page 47. Following points have been made in the joint inspection report:-
(i) Due to unscientific soap stone mining done by the lessee a significant landslide had occurred on the Western side outside sanctioned Mining lease area in the fields owned by other land owners including on the land recorded in the name of Tara Dutt Chandola applicant in present Original Application. The landslide is causing loss of revenue besides destroying land of the local villagers.
(ii) Green pine trees were also being damaged due to mining activity of Respondent No. 1.
(iii) If such unscientific mining of soapstone is continued in future then the possibility of increase in the area of landslide cannot be ruled out.
(iv) During the earlier joint inspection carried out on 15.11.2014 one Surya Narayan Singh was present who had informed that he is working as Mine Manager in the mine of Pankaj Bhatt.
We had by our order dated 15.2.2017 constituted an independent expert committee to inspect the mining area mentioned in the application to determine the losses caused to the Environment, Biodiversity, Forest, Public and Private properties in District Bageshwar. The Committee of Experts were to inspect all mines situated in District Bageshwar.
Mandate of the Committee is as follows:-
1) The inspection shall find about the mineral extraction.
2) Environmental damage assessment consequent to such mining activities and otherwise.
3) If some of the mining activities are with on the basis of the environmental clearance whether the mining has been done in accordance with the conditions stipulated in the Environmental Clearance.
4) Whether the consent of UKPCB has been obtained by these miners.
5) Irrespective of mining activity whether legally or illegally carried out, what is the impact on the health of the local residents in the area more particularly on the employees in the mining activity.
The Independent Expert Committee filed its report on 29.3.2017 which is placed at page 423.
The recommendation/conclusion of the Committee are as follows:-
1) As per the findings 0.105 ha agricultural land has been damaged by mining activity of Shri Pankaj Bhatt S/o Sh Narayan Dutt Bhatt (M/s A.P. Mines and Minerals as Respondent No. 1. Adequate compensation may be considered to the affected party.
2) It is recommended that the concern agencies shall ensure proper compliance of Environmental Clearance (EC) conditions as well as mining plan and local government not to issue Ravana (transit pass) to the miners who are operating without taking EC and mining plan.
3) It is also recommended that all the miners shall obtained consent to operate.
4) Being the mines in hilly region access and approach to the mining leases are quite arduous, thus it is suggested to monitor the mining activities by implementing Mining Surveillance System, which is being adopted for the major minerals in order to check illegal mining and damage to water courses.
In the reply filed on 11.4.2017 by Pankaj Bhatt on behalf of Respondent No. 1 it has been submitted that the allegations made in the Original Application do not find any reflection in the inspection report of the Independent Expert Committee. It has been submitted that the Report of the Independent Expert Committee discredits the Joint Inspection Reports dated 15.11.2014 and 11.3.2015.
In the response to the reply of Respondent No. 1 to the Inspection Report filed by the Independent Expert Committee filed on 11.5.2017 the Applicant has submitted that the Expert Committee has established the fact that the Respondent No. 1 had been doing Mining activities in violation of conditions stipulated in Environmental Clearance.
Central Pollution Control Board constituted a Joint Inspection Team to comply with the orders of this Tribunal.
This Joint Inspection team inspected the affected areas on 321.7.2017 with the following mandate:-
1) The inspection shall find out the mining outside the lease area.
2) Environmental damage assessment consequent to such mining activities and otherwise.
3) Find out the causative factors for the damage of area.
4) To provide the sufficient scientific material information to enable the Tribunal to finally determine the compensation favour.
The Report of the Committee constituted by Central Pollution Control Board was filed on 21.9.2017 which is placed at page 761.
The conclusions and recommendations of the said Committee are as follows:-
4.0 Conclusions:
On the basis of the observations and findings 0.105 ha agricultural land has been affected due to combine action of sloppy topography, hydrostatic pressure developed by the water holding pits, rainfall and mining at the foot of the affected area. Therefore, adequate compensation on the basis of the circle rate i.e. Rs. 14 lacs per hectare (as intimated by the Patwari concerned) of the concern area may be considered to the affected party by the M/s A.P. Mines.
5.0 Recommendations:
It is recommended that M/s A.P. Mines shall obtained consent to operate.
The abandoned Proposed Lease (PL) Pits those are exists very near to land of applicant should be reclaimed to avoid the further slide of the sloppy terrain, as the huge quantity of rain water filled in these pits exerted the hydrostatic pressure within the sloppy terrain and triggers the slides/damage of land.
M/s A.P. Mines should construct the retaining wall along the side of damage and reclaim damaged land of applicant by benching method.
The proper scientific approach of mining i.e. construction of retaining walls along the adjacent farmers land to avoid damages, and reclamation of abandoned mined area should be adopted.
The adequate compensation on the basis of the circle rate i.e. Rs. 14 Lacs per hectare (as intimated by the Patwari concerned) of the concern area may be considered to the affected party by the M/s A.P. Mines, considering land of applicant not only damaged by the activity of mining but also other natural factors also involved like sloppy topography, hydrostatic pressure developed from the PL pits.
It is therefore, clearly brought out that-
(a) Mining operations have been carried out by Respondent No.1 in violation of mining conditions so much so that mining has been done in the land owned by the Applicant and 0.105 ha. of his agricultural land has been affected.
(b) Mining has been done without Environment Clearance and Consent of the Competent Authority.
(c) Mining has been done in unscientific manner.
(d) Mining activity of Respondent No. 1 has damaged the area around the Mining lease area.
We, therefore, direct as under:
I. Respondent No. 1 will pay compensation to the Applicant at the rate of Rs. 14 Lakh per ha as worked out by the Committee appointed by the Central Pollution Control Board for 0.105 ha. of Agricultural Land of the Applicant. He shall pay Rs. 1.47 Lakh to the Applicant by way of compensation.
II. The Respondent No.1 shall pay Rs. 10.00 Lakh for the damage caused to the environment due to unscientific mining carried out by him in violation of approved mining plan. Besides, mining was being carried out without consent of the Competent Authority.
III. Mining Operation, if being carried out currently, should be stopped forthwith until and unless consent of the Competent Authority is obtained and Environmental Clearance and FC is received from Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change, if required under rule.
IV. Rs. 10 Lakh shall be paid by Respondent No. 1 to be deposited in the Environmental Compensation Fund which shall be utilised for restoring the area.
With the above direction the Original Application No. 567 of 2015 stands disposed of with no order as to cost.
As the main application has been disposed of, the miscellaneous application no. 1342 of 2015 does not survive for consideration and it is accordingly dismissed, with no order as to cost.