As protests are escalating over the possibility of a Coal India subsidiary being cleared to mine inside the Assam Dihing Patkai Elephant Reserve, an expert member who inspected the site on behalf of the National Wildlife Board (NBWL) has asked the Ministry of Environment to amend the minutes of the last NBWL meeting so as not to misrepresent the Board's decision.
In a letter to Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, Raman Sukumar, a prominent elephant expert and member of the NBWL, also sought action against North Eastern Coalfields to exclude the scale of violations at the project site from the NBWL.
Examining NEC 's proposal to mine 98,59 hectares of forest land, the NBWL recommended on 7 April the approval of 57,20 hectares of already illegally mined area subject to the submission of a mine recovery plan with local tree species.
The minutes uploaded to the Ministry 's website state that the Board further decided to consider an underground mining plan for the remaining 41,39 hectares — a claim that Sukumar challenged.
“As 57.20 hectares were already broken, the unanimous decision taken in two meetings in the presence of the Environment Minister was against allowing mining in the remaining areas with standing forest. I have already written to the ministry to amend the minutes to make it clear that mining would not be allowed in the unbroken area,” Sukumar told The Indian Express.
Sukumar referred to two meetings on the subject chaired by Environment Minister Javadekar — NBWL on 7 April and another meeting with officials of Coal India Limited on 21 January.
Sukumar said that "few general remarks" were made during the meeting "about the advantages of underground mining over opencast, but not directly" in the sense of the project. “Underground mining is anyway not feasible on such a steep slope in the proposed area,” he explained.
“Dr Sukumar has pointed out certain drafting issues which will be sorted out. The Board confirms the minutes of the previous meeting at the beginning of every meeting, with amendments whenever necessary,” said a senior official in the environment ministry who did not wish to be named.
The NBWL is a statutory body under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Its Standing Committee meets on a periodic basis to evaluate projects proposed in and around national parks and sanctuaries for their impact on wildlife.
In 1973, the subsidiary of Coal India acquired a 30-year lease to Dihing Patkai. When the lease expired in 2003, the business sought statutory clearance under the Forest Protection Act, 1980. However, it illegally extended its operations from 13 hectares to 57.20 hectares between 2003 and 2012 before seeking forest clearance for 98.59 hectares, including an unbroken area of 41.39 hectares.
In 2013, the Ministry's Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) requested the state to penalize the business for mining without permission. The State Forest Department has been dragging its feet and a penalty of Rs 43.25 crore was imposed only last month.
In the meantime, North Eastern Coalfields continued to mine without permission and, according to a site inspection report submitted by the Ministry of Regional Office in Shillong in November 2019, it lost another 16 hectares of forest in the process since 2013.
“This reduces the unbroken area from 41.39 to 25.39 hectare and this fact was never revealed by the company in their presentation to the NBWL site inspection committee. It was not possible to get a precise measure of the extent of mining in a few hours when we visited the area. I have written to the Environment minister about this serious breach of trust and seek appropriate action,” said Sukumar, who inspected the project site in October 2019.
When contacted, JK Borah, General Manager, North Eastern Coalfields said, “We stopped mining operation in October 2019. There has to be a joint survey to determine how much area was in use as some patches may have lost green cover due to landslides. Anyway, the state forest department has billed us Rs 43 crore in CA (compensatory afforestation) and NPV (net present value of forests) for 73 hectares which includes the additional 16 hectares.”
