Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Akhilesh Kumar Vs State of Uttar Pradesh & Others dated 23/05/2025. The matter related to illegal mining activites carried out by Jai Maa Chandrika Enterprises, Rajendra Nagar, village Kabari, district Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh. The applicant also alleged about illegal sale …
IN SEPTEMBER last year, China halted shipments of rare earth metals, crucial for the manufacture of everything from guided missiles and hybrid cars to flat-screen televisions and BlackBerry phones, to Japan over a territorial dispute. It also cut down its export quota for rare earth by 72 per cent for …
The all-powerful iron ore mining mafia of Karnataka has hurled red dust into the eyes of democratic India with impunity, and for long. Convinced of their invincibility, the Reddy brothers, along with their mentors and cohorts, have ravaged the state’s rich mines. Between April 2006 and July 2010 the state …
Mining in India is regulated by multiple institutions functioning at multiple levels to provide checks and balances. In Bellary, however, every department and agency supposed to regulate and control mining simply collapsed under the weight of the “loot”. Bellary, therefore, represents a colossal failure of governance. There are seven ministries …
Environment comes first, profits later, noted Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia while ordering suspension of all mining operations in Bellary on August 5. Of the 148 mines in Bellary, only one company can mine iron ore, that too in limited quantity. The state-owned National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) …
The Supreme Court today allowed state-owned National Minerals Development Corporation (NMDC) to operate its mines to meet the domestic requirements of iron ore in Karnataka's Bellary district. The organisation will produce iron ore to the tune of one million tonnes per month. Work on all private mines will, however, remain …
The red haze mixes with sweat to form a sticky paste that does not peel off one's skin easily. It becomes dried blood The appearance is deceptive. The district headquarters of Bellary in Karnataka could be any other small town in India: rows of tiled houses, potholed lanes, a bustling …
Sustainable mining is an oxymoron. Environmentalists will tell you this. Mining—coal to limestone—takes away forests, devastates mountains and leaves the land pockmarked. It also destroys livelihoods of people and displaces them. Worse, modern, mechanised mining takes away livelihood based on land but does not replace it with local employment—all estimates …
A bill that promises direct benefit to people from the minerals underneath their land is ready to be tabled in Parliament this monsoon session. The Group of Ministers gave it a nod on July 7 after minor changes in the contentious profit-sharing provision, which requires mining companies to shell out …
Abill to regulate the mining sector is likely to be introduced in Parliament in this session. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Bill of 2010 stipulates that companies share 26 per cent profits from mining with project affected people besides paying for community development as part of corporate social …
IN A setback to Vedanta Alumina Ltd, the Orissa High Court on July 19 upheld the Centre’s decision to stall expansion of the company’s refinery in Lanjigarh. The court, however, said the company can apply for the environmental clearance for its expansion afresh. The Union environment ministry in October last …
The Khandadhar waterfalls is a favourite picnic destination of many college students in Odisha. But it may soon be a pleasure of the past. The falls spring out from the Khandadhar hills that are home to 69 working sponge iron units. And with more than 150 mining projects approved, the …
THE Supreme Court has allowed French construction giant Lafarge to resume limestone mining in an eco-sensitive area in Meghalaya. The ruling came on July 6 after a bench said it is “satisfied” with the revised clearance by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF). The court also issued several …
RELIANCE Power’s 4,000 megawatt ultra mega power project in Sidhi district in Madhya Pradesh came close to becoming the first coal-fired power plant in India to be denied financing by a developed country on the pretext of reducing carbon emissions. On June 24, the board of Export-Import Bank of the …
Over a year ago, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) undertook an exercise to assess pollution levels in some of the highly polluted industrial areas of India. It then released a list of 43 most polluted areas, terming them critically polluted, and imposed a moratorium on their expansion. …
Just a few days before Swami Nigamanand died while on a fast to protest state-sponsored sand mining and stone crushing along the Ganga near Haridwar, the Uttarakhand government ordered a ban on mining activities in the region considered sacred. Millions of pilgrims visit the place to take a dip in …
A High Powered Committee set up by the Central government has suggested that allocation of natural resources should go to the highest bidder. This 13-member committee, headed by former finance secretary Ashok Chawla, submitted its recommendations in the first week of June. It was set up in January in the …
POSCO’S steel plant project in Odisha may get stalled again. As the state resumes acquiring land for the country’s largest foreign direct investment project—US $12 billion—it faces a fresh litigation and mounting protests. Communities refuse to part with forest in the mining area and river water for the South Korean …
DISTRICT collector of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh cancelled the lease to mine China clay in the area on May 16. The move was in response to the sustained protests by tribal residents, who say land was allotted to outsiders without their consent. The collector, J Syamala Rao, said action would …
THE Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, or MoEF, has given final clearance to the POSCO steel project in Odisha. While doing so, it ignored the forest rights claims of people living in the project site in Jagatsinghpur district. The gram sabhas of two of the seven affected villages—Dhinkia and …
