Continuing its tough stance against illegal mining in Karnataka the Supreme Court on Friday ordered fresh demarcation of ninety-nine mining leases and suspended the operation by one company after finding that more than 1,081 hectares of precious forests had been eaten up by them over the years.
Acting on the third and fourth reports of the Central Empowerment Committee (CEC) on “gross violations” of different degrees, including encroaching upon the forests, dumping waste material there and constructing roads without permission, a green bench, headed by Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapaidia, appointed a four-member committee to have a fresh survey and demarcation of each of the 99 mining leases.
The team will comprise a high-ranking officer each from Karnataka’s forest department, mine and geological department, Lokayukta and CEC and it would complete the task by July 4 when the apex court would reopen after summer vacation and submit its report identifying the specified violations.
The demarcation team was given the authority to suspend mining operation of any company found to be extending its mining activities beyond the sanctioned lease, or dumping extracted material in the forest area, or constructing roads illegally.
The CJI while dictating the order made it clear that the team would suspend the mining operation in the entire leased area of any company found violating the law and it would remain suspended till the court had heard the arguments of the firm on the violations pointed out by the survey team, which was asked to clearly indicate in the report the location of the mining pits, boundary pillars, dumped material and constructed road.
As counsel for several companies stated that the suspension should only be confined to the area found to be encroached, or revenue area should not be equated with the forest land for the purpose of determining the violations, the CJI brushed their arguments aside and said “first you stop the encroachments”.