IN a novel campaign, farmers and environmentalists who have joined hands to fight an iron ore mining project at Kanchamalai in Salem, filed 530 applications under the Right to Information Act with the Department of Forests en masse on Tuesday . Over 700 farmers with their families converged on the District Forest Office on Tuesday. Catching the officials unaware, they filed individual applications, seeking details of the proposed project to mine iron ore from the pristine surroundings of the Kanchamalai hills by a joint venture company floated by Tamil Nadu Industrial Minerals Corporation Ltd (TIMCO) and the private steel major Jindals. The magnetite ore to be mined is to be used for manufacturing iron ingots at the Mecheri plant of the South India Iron and Steel Co Ltd (SISCOL), a Lakshmi Mills-TN government JV taken over by the Jindals. Officials initially said only one application would be received. But the people insisted that every family affected by the project wanted to know to what extent the project would impact their lives. The applications contained five ques tions pertinent to the project and the Forest Department's response to the forest clearance petitions filed by the company, besides the department's EPA (Environmental Impact Assessment) documents. According to official sources, TIMCO and SISCOL joint venture wants 1,000 acres of mineral-rich hills in two places in Tamil Nadu. While 638 acres is sought at Kanchamalai, revered for the indigenous medical practitioners and rich herbs, 330 acres has been asked for at Tiruvannamalai. Around 90,000 trees at Kanchamalai and 2 lakh trees in Tiruvannamalai will be felled once the project is cleared by the Forest department. Indicating that the Forest department has given its green signal for the project (which it rejected earlier), Forest department officials said, "Things are no more in our hands but with the Supreme Court, which sent its Empowered Committee on May 29, 30 to Kanchamalai to give its report.'