Environment min sees green, chooses forests over mining ……..Ruhi Kandhari NEW DELHI
THE ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) has turned down ministry of mines’ proposal to ease environmental regulations for mineral exploration in forests. MoEF’s tough stand may adversely impact investments in locating new mineral reserves in the country. Global mining majors such as Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto — who have invested in exploration for minerals — may restrict their expansion plans.
MoEF apprehends that relaxing environmental regulations will destruct precious forest reserves. Restrictive regulations include permission to test drill holes to roughly one borehole per sq km. The hole should not be more than 10-cm diameter. Most of the country’s mineral wealth is under forest cover and location of minerals by drilling test holes may harm wildlife.
Mines ministry had approached MoEF seeking simpler environmental regulations, as investment in exploration in the country remains paltry. In the wake of a report by Metals Economics Group, which says the country’s share of global investment in exploration was a mere 0.5%, government plans to attract private investment in exploration.
In order to safeguard the forest reserves and wildlife, MoEF has argued the ministry can only allow drilling of 15 boreholes in a 10-sq km area, a mines ministry official, who did not wish to be identified, said. However, mines ministry suggests the number of boreholes generally goes up to 20 boreholes per sq km depending on the mineral and type of deposit.
Mines ministry additional secretary Vijay Kumar said his ministry had written to MoEF requesting softer regulation to allow exploration of minerals in forestrich areas. “Procedures to get clearances for exploration are as stringent as the actual activity of mining the mineral. They need to be simplified,” he told ET. He added that MoEF’s sentiment is that once metals are located, there will be considerable pressure to mine them.
To further negotiations in this regard, mines ministry secretary Shantanu Consul said the mines ministry will negotiate further with the environment ministry. “We don’t see why there should be a problem. We will try to convince them,” he said.
The Planning Commission report, National Mineral Policy (NMP), 2008, suggests the ministry of mines and MoEF should jointly set up a working group to prepare a Sustainable Development Framework especially tailored to the context of the mining environment to sort the environmental and forests clearances. It says the level of waste-generation is minimal at the exploration stage, further suggesting that exploration — both regional and specific — should be exempted from environmental clearance.
NMP 2008 envisages 100% exploration of all potential areas and exploitation limited to such areas where it is possible to take suitable measures for restoration of the ecological balance.