The Asian Age July 21, 2000, 'The Bangalore Age' section

CM to talk to greens on KIOCL Lease

Bangalore, July 21: Chief Minister S.M.Krishna has asked chief secretary B.K. Bhattacharya to hold discussions with environmentalists on the extension of lease for the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company, following a letter by the Environment Support Group urging the chief minister not to renew the lease for the company, which expires on July 25.

Talking to The Asian Age, Mr. Leo Saldanha, convenor of the ESG said the chief minister in his reply on Thursday to the plea by environmentalists had said, "I am equally concerned with the environmental aspect of the issue."

In his letter to the chief minister, Mr.Saldanha has pointed out that the forests in Kudremukh National Park were an invaluable bio-diversity asset with a rich wildlife habitat and critical watersheds.

"When the extension of the KIOCL lease was sought last year, the chief wildlife warden had rejected the extension and had concluded that a halt to all mining activities was essential in order to protect the wildlife in the forest. The lease was extended for one year only by the ministry of environment and forest, subject to conditions," Mr. Saldanha has said in the letter.

The conditions were finalising the declaration of the Kudremukh National Park within one year, studies such as environment impact assessments and impact on wildlife by reputed institutes, securing the completion of a survey to set up and sponsor a centre for study of biological diversity in the Western Ghats in consultation with the ministry of environment and forests. However, none of these conditions have been fulfilled, Mr. Saldanha has pointed out.

Criticising the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute which Mr. Saldanha said had in abject violations of the state governments decision to conduct a Comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment produced only a Rapid Environmental Assessment of KIOCL's operations and betrayed all standards of international practise in preparation of the Initial Environmental Examination. He said that Mr. R.K.Guptha, assistant inspector general of forests has in his letter dated June 8 this year to the principal secretary of forests said that mining activities in a national park is not consistent with the provisions of Section 29 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and has also reminded the state government that in his letters dated December 1999 and March 24 this year that absolutely no effort has been made to finalise notification of the National Park. The ESG has also suggested to the chief minister that the KIOCL should be relocated at Sandhur district which has very high deposits of iron ore.

The Environmental Support Group alleges that:

• 3,200 hectares of the land leased to the KIOCL is not forest land

• Extensive mining operations of KIOCL over the past 25 years have depleted the shola forests and replaced them with heaps of mined waste.

• Naturalists have accounted for disappearance of many varieties of fish including the highly threatened Mahseer in the Bhadra and Tunga rivers due to pollution from mining.

• There has been decline in agricultural productivity downstream due to deposition of mine tailings

• That wrong afforestation practices of KIOCL such as planting mono culture forests have affected the diverse and unique natural habitat of the Western Ghats

• Western Ghats is a host to a wide range of flora and fauna several which are endemic to the area. Mining could effect several genera of mammals endemic to the area including Slender Loris, Lion Tailed Macaque, two species of mongoose, two species of Civet, Nilgiri Langur, Grizzled giant squirrel and rusty spotted cat, 16 species of birds including Nilgiri Wood pigeon, blue winged parakeet, Colias Hyale, an endemic species of butterfly listed under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, seven vulnerable species of amphibians, fishes, many endangered species of ants, several species of trees which are on the verge of extinction.