<p>Based on the direction from the Hon'ble Supreme Court, the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) issued guidelines to the Government of Karnataka(GoK) to get R&R Plans for the individual open cast
The High Court on Wednesday stayed work on the Upper Bhadra project taken up in the forested areas of the Bhadra tiger reserve without obtaining clearance from the Union government. Hearing a petition filed by the State unit of Bharatiya Kissan Sangha and others, the Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice K Sreedhar Rao and Justice Abdul Nazeer has granted an interim stay on the construction within the forest area till necessary clearance can be obtained from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Iron ore mining is set to resume on a full scale in Karnataka with the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) recommending that all lessees under A and B categories be permitted to restart mining operations. The panel, in its recommendations to the apex court, has said that all the leases under category A can be permitted to excavate ore. The apex court, on September 3, 2012, had permitted resumption of mining for 18 of the 45 leases in category A. With CEC’s latest recommendations, the remaining 27 will resume operations.
SC stipulated that a max of 25 mn tn of iron ore can be extracted annually from Bellary district, 5 mn tn from Chitradurga, Tumkur district Faced with the constraints on granting new mining leases in view of the cap on extraction of iron ore at 30 million tonne per annum, the Karnataka government has appealed to the Supreme Court to withdraw its order on limiting iron ore production. The state government, in a fresh appeal before the Apex Court recently, stated that the cap of 30 million tonnes per annum from the three mining districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur would jeopardize setting up of new steel mills in the state.
The SC appointed Monitoring Committee is currently assessing the quantity of iron ore available at these dumps in the three mining districts The Supreme Court appointed Monitoring Committee, which is supervising the e-auction of iron ore, has planned to put on auction iron ore dumps containing mostly low-grade iron ore. The committee has started assessing the approximate quantity of iron ore available in the dumps at several places in the three mineral rich districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur. The process would be completed in a month’s time and go to Central Empowered Committee (CEC) for an approval to put on e-auction, the sources close to the development said.
Terms of reference for the proposed study to be carried out by the Fact Finding Committee constituted in respect of Application Nos.6 And 12 Of 2013 (Sz) filed at the Southern Zone Bench Of National Green
Report detailing grassland ecosystems of Karnataka by Abi Tamim Vanak, Fellow, National Environmental Sciences Program, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India & Fellow, Centre for Biodiversity
The State government, which has strongly favoured establishment of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for rejuvenating areas devastated by illegal mining, has found that mining lessees have made windfall profits with little investment and with negligible concern for sustainability. The government is in favour of retaining a higher portion of the revenue earned by the lessees so that it could finance infrastructure and environment projects in districts of Bellary, Chitradruga and Tumkur. In its interlocutory application before the Supreme Court this month, Karnataka has presented how mining lease holders have made supernormal profits without investing much funds. The next hearing of the case is scheduled on January 8.
Vaman Acharya, Chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), said on Thursday that the KSPCB had named Mangalore and Bhadravati as “critically polluted” cities in the State. He was inaugurating a three-day international conference on “Environment and occupation health” organised by Manipal University, the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH), Ahmedabad, and the Regional Occupational Health Centre (ROHC), Bangalore, here.
A Comprehensive Environment Management Plan (CEMP) for the mining affected areas in the districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur in Karnataka has been prepared to facilitate socio-economic and ecological
The illegal mining committed during 2006-11 in three districts of Karnataka has resulted in the state losing a revenue of Rs 3,414.45 crore and the government could recover only Rs 7.22 crore, a report by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India said. In Chitradurga, Tumkur and Hospet divisions four lessees had extracted 1.47 million mt of iron ore valued at Rs 150.59 crore without the consent of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), the CAG report tabled in the Assembly said.
