Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Re-grassing to be part of govt’s mining policy

- Ashok Bagriya letters@hindustant­imes.com

NEWDELHI: The Centre is all set to introduce re-grassing — a technique to reclaim land by growing grass on land affected by mining activity — as a mandatory condition for mining leaseholde­rs in the National Mining Policy, 2019, which is being drawn up.

This is being considered on a suggestion made by the Supreme Court on Thursday.

Hearing a case of environmen­tal violations by Odisha miners, a bench comprising justice SA Bobde and justice Deepak Gupta suggested, “In the course of hearing, the issue of deleteriou­s effect of mining on vegetation in the area came up before us. In particular, it is well known that mining results in a complete eliminatio­n of grass in the area, which results in denial of fodder to herbivores...re-grassing technology is in existence today and it should be used.”

The court then directed the Odisha government “to look into the matter and make appropriat­e suggestion­s for implementi­ng this proposal of re-grassing after terminatio­n of mining activities.”

Senior advocate Ashok Kumar Panda, appearing for the Centre, informed the court that this would be included as part of the 2019 national mining policy that was being formulated.

Earlier, by its 2017 judgement in the Odisha mining case, the top court had imposed a fine of ₹19,174.83 crores on mining leaseholde­rs for environmen­tal and forest clearance violations.

It had also directed the Centre to “revisit the National Mineral Policy, 2008” as it was then almost a decade old. “...it is high time that the Union of India revisits the National Mineral Policy...and announces a fresh and more effective, meaningful and i mplementab­le policy within the next few months ...before 31st December, 2017.”

Justice Bobde, while hearing the matter on Thursday, remarked, “When mining happens, t here is large-scale de-grassing, due to which the habitat is destroyed and the fodder for bovines, which is freely available, is lost forever...”

“...One should be clear as to how a mining site will be utilised after closure of the mine....” said Kanchi Kohli, legal researcher with Centre for Policy Research.

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