The government Ignores its own report detailing eco-sensitivity of area.
Last week, the headmaster of a school in Zolambe village, Sindhudurg district, received a letter from the district collector.
The letter contained a query regarding the availability of school space on March 14 for the purpose of conducting a public hearing, involving two proposed iron ore mining projects.
The gram panchayat and the sarpanch of the village had no idea about the letter.
This, despite the fact that the moratorium on mining projects in the Sindhudurg district has been extended to March 31, 2012.
The reason for the hearing, as cited by the authorities, was that the leases for the mines in Zolambe were given prior to 2010 and the moratorium did not apply to them. Interestingly, the authorities seem to have decided to conveniently sideline the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) report, chaired by Prof Madhav Gadgil. The report was purposefully kept hidden from the public domain until today, though it was submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on August 31, 2011.
The maps demarcated by the panel and submitted to the MoEF clearly show that almost the entire part of the Western Ghats that lies in the Sawantwadi and Dodamarg tehsils of Sindhudurg (where the majority of the mining projects are being proposed) lie in the Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1, the regions of highest sensitivity.
If one has to go by the recommendations of the panel, which was constituted by the MoEF itself to study the impact of mining and other developmental projects on Western Ghats, the two above-mentioned areas should not be exposed to mining. However, there are indications from the government that it is not willing to accept the report of a panel which was formed by the government itself.
DNA was the first to publish the findings of the WGEEP’s summary report (DNA, January 16, “Expert Panel Recommends Ban on Mining in Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg”). The complete report, now in DNA’s possession, confirms that the panel has recommended phasing out of mining from ESZ 1 by 2016. For ESZ 2, regions of high sensitivity, the panel has recommended the continuation of existing mining projects, under strict regulation with an effective system of social audit.
“The authorities did not even contact the gram panchayat while requesting a place to conduct the public hearing. We have told them that it will not be possible on March 14,” said Satish Kamat, sarpanch of Zolambe.
Vaishali Patil of Konkan Vinashkari Prakalp Virodhi Samiti said, “Issuing such notices of public hearings means that the mining companies are confident of two things. One, the moratorium will be lifted, and second, the government will not accept the report.”
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