Forest department opposed move to dig up area for mining.
Bengaluru: Ballari’s Sandur is set to lose 992 acres of virgin forest for mining amid opposition from the Forest Department, public outcry and a case pending before the High Court of Karnataka for nearly three years.
The project proposed by the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company (KIOCL), which DH wrote about on April 19, 2021, has come to the limelight after Union Heavy Industries and Steel Minister H D Kumaraswamy approved it, essentially giving a green signal for operationalising the mine.
Activists said the development is another blow to the mining-ravaged region and a reflection of the prioritisation of profits over conservation and public health.
Virgin forest areas are old growth forests that have remained untouched by humans. Following a ground survey, forest officers had put the number of trees in the 992 acres at 99,000, including “300 types of medicinal plants”.
Between June 2019 and February 2020, the proposal to dig up the hilly forest region to mine iron and manganese ore was rejected by the Forest Department at four levels, starting from the Deputy Conservator of Forests to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF, Head of Forest Force).
In fact, the sheer scale of destruction of forests had prompted then PCCF Punati Sridhar to write to the government in August 2019 “not to consider fresh forest areas for mining purpose till detailed exercise is undertaken in the state for mapping the mineral resources within and outside forest area” and to prioritise exploitation of minerals outside forest areas.
Sridhar noted that loss of the 992 acres of forest on the hill ridge would cause severe soil erosion and will have a negative effect locally. “About 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of the 32,000 hectares of Sandur’s forest area have already been leased out and broken open for iron ore mining. It may not be advisable for the time being to approve for diversion of such forests for mining,” he said.
Source: https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/99000-trees-in-sandur-forest-to-face-axe-3069082