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THE Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL) shut down its mining operations in the Aroli-Gangamoola ranges of the Kudremukh hills on December 31, in accordance with the October 2002 ruling of the Supreme Court aimed at preserving the ecological integrity of the biodiversity-rich Kudremukh range. However, the over 1,200-strong workforce at the Kudremukh mines of this public sector company has no alternative livelihoods in sight because no proper rehabilitation package has been worked out.
Suresh Babu, a member of the Kudremukh Shram Shakthi Sanghatan (KSSS), said: "The company has thought up hundreds of plans and alternatives but so far nothing has worked out; we are not sure what will happen to us and our families." That uncertainty is what comes across when one listens to what his colleagues at the mine have to say: "My wife wants to know which school we will send our children to, now that the mine has closed," said one. "The Karnataka Cabinet allotted a mine in Bellary to us but nothing has happened since then," said another. Some of them still hope life will go on as usual and some point to the supposedly environment-friendly measures that the KIOCL has taken: "The management has repeatedly told us that there is nothing to worry, the company will definitely get an extension to mine here in Kudremukh." "The company has taken steps to protect the environment, building pollution control dams and planting trees on 135 of the 485 hectares (ha) that have been opened up for mining."
The KIOCL management and the State and Central governments seem equally unsure about the future in the absence of clear plans. They are all waiting for the Supreme Court's verdict on whether the KIOCL can, in the "interest of safety and slope stability", open up an unbroken area of 54.01 ha, and whether it can process the ore mined there.
The KIOCL is also hoping that the court will grant its request for permission to extract primary ore for another 20 years in an additional area of 374 ha. The plea has the backing of the Karnataka government, which has cited the naxalite problem as a reason why mining should not be stopped. It has the backing, too, of the Monitoring Committee appointed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Curiously, the Monitoring Committee, which was set up primarily to oversee the mine closure and the rehabilitation plan, hardly discussed these aspects. Instead, its focus was diverted by the KIOCL's requests for continued mining in the area. The committee's consolidated majority view, submitted to the Supreme Court in July 2005, reflects this. It held that the KIOCL should be "allowed to mine the additional unbroken forest area of 54.01 ha, as suggested by the National Institute of Rock Mechanics study, in order to achieve long-term slope-stability"; and also "since it [would] take time to stabilise the slopes, undertake reclamation, and carry out afforestation during the closure of the mine, simultaneous mining of primary ore in the already broken-up area may be permitted during the interim period".
The lone dissenting voice was that of Dr. Raman Sukumar of the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He wondered what would be done with the material generated during the excavation process. He felt that this aspect should be referred to an expert group on mine-rehabilitation, "a group which could examine if the earthen material so removed from the area of 54.01 ha could be recycled into the rehabilitation process". Sukumar also felt that "any further mining of primary ore over a period of 20 years would potentially introduce a plethora of environmental problems".
The Supreme Court in September 2005 cited its October 2002 ruling and ordered that no mining was permissible in Kudremukh after December 31, 2005. The KIOCL, however, still hopes for a minor miracle, either from the court or the Union government. Informed sources told Frontline that the KIOCL, given its socio-economic importance to the region, hoped that laws would be changed/bent to enable it to mine the around 300 million tonnes of primary banded magnetite quartzite ore (recently prospected by the company) in the Aroli-Gangamoola ranges, which have some of Asia's largest iron ore deposits.
There have been pointers that the KIOCL is interested in mining in the nearby Gangadikal ranges. Environmentalists say that would be like slicing through the Western Ghats with a giant knife to disrupt the north-south contiguity. A recipe for more environmental damage, since habitat fragmentation is now known to be the single largest threat to biodiversity and ecological integrity.
Says Sukumar: "I was shocked when the Monitoring Committee recommended mining of primary ore for the next 20 years. Not only was this opening a Pandora's box; it was also beyond the mandate of the committee. Our mandate was only to oversee the closure and rehabilitation process, something that the committee hardly ever discussed. And no closure plan was shown to us." The KIOCL, however, told Frontline that it had submitted in October 2004 a mine closure plan approved by the Indian Bureau of Mines to the Ministry for Environment and Forests (MoEF), which in turn sent it to the Supreme Court.
Sukumar concedes that some sort of slope stability is needed before the mines are abandoned. "Prima facie some stabilisation of the slope is needed, but should the KIOCL be allowed to process the ore? Mining the ore will not be in tune with the letter and spirit of the Supreme Court's October 2002 verdict. And the question is: why did the KIOCL mine in such a precarious manner when it knew that it would not be allowed to open fresh areas?"
Explains J.N. Kini, the KIOCL's Director (Production and Projects): "It is imperative that we provide slope stability and remove the material. We cannot just dump the 30 million tonnes of ore and get out. It has to be processed and the tailings dumped into the Lakya Dam. It will take the KIOCL four years to process this material. If this is not done in two or three monsoons, the Bhadra river could end up being history."
BUT environmentalists are not convinced. They say that mining cannot be the answer to the problem of slope stability when it created the problem in the first place. And if at all something needs to be done to ensure slope stability, they are in favour of an outside agency appointed by the MoEF doing the job.
Environmentalists also question the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education's approval of the KIOCL's mining plan. Instead of opening up new areas for slope stability, they say, techniques such as soil nailing, micro-pilling, tensar mats and double steel meshing could be used at the mine-site, even for slopes as steep as 90 degrees.
That the KIOCL management has not announced any monetary (there are adequate cash reserves) or alternative packages (such as relocating to its Mangalore pellet plant) for the mineworkers could be deliberate, since doing so would considerably weaken its position when the court hears its petition. A KIOCL official said: "The court, citing our mine closure package, could hand over the slope stability aspects to an outside agency. Why should we allow this to happen?" Also, keeping the workers in a state of limbo and agitating on the streets (roadblocks and protests have already taken place) makes for sympathetic publicity. Officials say that even after closure, it will take two to three years to dismantle the machinery, and another six years for the mine closure and rehabilitation plan to be put in place.
Representatives from the KIOCL's three trade unions have, in vain, approached the courts (a curative petition filed by the KSSS was dismissed). They have also met a number of Union Ministers, including Ram Vilas Paswan (whose Ministry of Steel and Mines has done almost nothing to secure a new mine for the KIOCL), T.R. Baalu, Dayanidhi Maran and A. Raja, Karnataka Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh and some of his Cabinet colleagues, and also the United Progressive Alliance leader, Sonia Gandhi. According to S.S. Kantharaj, adviser, central working committee, Kudremukh Employees' Union, Sonia Gandhi directed the Union Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation Oscar Fernandes to convene a meeting of all the Ministers and Members of Parliament concerned and Dharam Singh "to discuss the KIOCL issue and to take a decision on what should be done".
According to the former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, M. Rama Jois, who appeared for the KSSS against the closure, the Supreme Court's October 2002 ruling has two serious defects. "The court did not give an opportunity to the workers to be heard. This is violation of natural justice. Also, the judgment was based on the recommendations of the Central Empowerment Committee, one of whose members [Mahendra Vyas] was also the advocate for the petitioner [Wildlife First, a non-governmental organisation]. It is established jurisprudence that no one should be judged in his own cause. But the court refused to hear us, dismissing the curative petition in chambers itself. The Central government can appoint a commission of inquiry or pass legislation to overcome what is an indefensible judgment."
The MoEF has already submitted its views to the Supreme Court. The State government is expected to file shortly an affidavit clarifying its position, which, according to KIOCL workers, will favour a continuation of mining. Much to the annoyance of conservationists such as Praveen Bhargav of Wildlife First, which set the ball rolling as far as the closure issue is concerned, with its public interest petition in the Supreme Court in 2001. The petition highlighted the irreparable damage caused to river systems by the mining.
Says Bhargav: "It was in response to considerable public concern, that the State in 2001 gave a commitment to the Supreme Court that mining in Kudremukh would be wound up in five years and that it would re-include an area of 37 square kilometres, where mining was taking place, in the Kudremukh National Park (KNP) after mining was stopped but left the decision to the wisdom of the Supreme Court. The court in a landmark judgment, directed that no mining was permissible after December 31, 2005, and that leaving out 37 sq km from the national park was not in order. It also rapped the government for not taking a consistent stand. Yet, there appears to be an unprecedented attempt to subvert the judgment and several directions of the court have been brazenly flouted to accommodate the mining company."
Informed sources say that the Chief Wildlife Warden wrote twice to the State government advising that the mined area (37 sq km) be forthwith declared a part of the national park. A forest officer said: "In the first place, the area should never have been left out of the purview of the park. It should be brought back into the fold of the park. Doing this will ensure unbroken shola forests and will be better for conservation."
According to Bhargav, the State government's continuing reluctance to include the 37-sq-km area in the national park constituted a clear case of contempt of court since the time granted by the Supreme Court for mining was subject to fulfilment of the recommendations made by the Central Empowered Committee which had concluded that this area must be part of the national park. "The court held that this decision of the State government to leave out an area of 37 sq km in terms of the notification under Section 35(4) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, though this was being used for mining by the company, was not in order."
The KIOCL is also accused of mining in the unbroken areas. The National Remote Sensing Agency has documented that between December 1999 and July 2002, the KIOCL opened up fresh unbroken forest area to the extent of 56.28 ha. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India's report for the period ending March 31, 2003, also recorded that the KIOCL had been operating illegally outside the assigned Temporary Working Permission Area of 1,452 ha and estimated the environmental damage to be equivalent to Rs.19.33 crores, a sum that was yet to be recovered. According to Kini, the company may have "strayed by a few metres during blasting".
Trade unions allege that the Karnataka government has done nothing except making false promises and issuing statements, while the KIOCL management has not taken the workers into confidence. The management, they say, dissuaded the workers from approaching the courts, with the assurance that the company was certain to get at least a two or three years' extension to mine.
If no extension is forthcoming, the KIOCL's pelletising plant in Mangalore must depend entirely on the haematite ore that it procures from the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) mines in Bellary. The KIOCL has also applied to the Karnataka government for a mine. In early 2002, the State government did propose to allocate 50 per cent of the 1,664 ha Ramanadurg range to the KIOCL for exploitation. But in March 2003, the mine, which had been reserved for extraction by state-owned companies, was de-reserved. The NMDC, which had done the prospecting, approached the High Court and secured a stay on the State government's decision. According to informed sources, the NMDC is prepared to withdraw its suit if the State government promises not to hand over the mine to private parties.
Says KSSS general secretary S. Venkatraya: "The State government's decision to de-reserve was aimed at favouring a private company. This is when the NMDC approached the Karnataka High Court questioning the government's decision. Even according to the Mineral Rules, the NMDC has to be given preference since it was the first to prospect the area. Though the Dharam Singh government has been saying that it is negotiating with the NMDC and is trying to have the stay vacated, nothing has happened on the ground. Our Minister [Steel and Mines] is also doing nothing for us. When he is here, he says `we won't let them close the mine'; when he is at some other place he says `what can we do? There is a court order'."
Instead of looking at alternative sites, the KIOCL management has so far shown an inclination to stay put at Kudremukh. Even if the KIOCL is given a mine today, the minimum lead time for the ore to flow would be three years.
According to Kini, the KIOCL has been trying to secure a mine: "Three years ago we went to Ongole [in Andhra Pradesh], but while it was technically feasible, it was not economically so. Putting up a beneficiation plant was not worth it. In Ramanadurg we won't need a beneficiation plant since the ore is high-grade haematite. But the cost of taking the ore to Mangalore will be high." But then, does the KIOCL have a choice?
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