Vedanta gets green ministry panel’s nod to mine in Niyamgiri hills

Times of India, July 2, 2011
NEW DELHI: Congress heir apparent Rahul Gandhi may have campaigned to protect the forests of Niyamgiri hills in Orissa from bauxite mining, but the environment ministry's statutory green clearance authority has given the nod for exploitation of mining in the Dongriya Kondh tribals' homeland.


The environment ministry appraises projects for two types of clearances – environmental and diversion of forests – and both are processed separately. In April 2009, the environment ministry had accorded environmental clearance to mine the sacred forests.

The clearance was immediately challenged before the National Environment Appellate Authority by the Dongriya Kondhs and activist Prafulla Samantra. The mandatory public hearing was done on the basis of one set of requisite documents, while the clearance was accorded by the ministry's statutory Environment Appraisal Committee (EAC) based on another set of documents, which was patently illegal.

The appellate authority rejected had the nod, and asked the environment ministry to take a re-look at the proposal. Also, environment minister Jairam Ramesh had rejected the forest clearance to Vedanta, leading Gandhi to champion the tribals' cause.

Vedanta appealed against the rejection of forest clearance in the Supreme Court, and also filed a plea before the appellate authority for reviewing cancellation of the green clearance.

With the rejected environmental clearance pending review, the green ministry asked its EAC to take a re-look at the project. It admitted that the government was not even aware that two different sets of documents existed – one for public hearing and another for official clearance.

It set up a sub-committee to revisit the case again. The sub-committee recommended that the absence of one report from public domain, and another before EAC made no difference. It turned a blind eye to the fact that the second report, which the government had considered, didn't even exist when the public hearing was held.

Now, the EAC is in agreement with its sub-committee, and has given the nod yet again to Vedanta to carry out bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills. It has only added three more conditions to the clearance that was given earlier.

EAC's decision holds much weight unlike the forest clearance that Ramesh had overruled. EAC's recommendations cannot be over-ridden by the ministry. At best, the ministry can send the recommendations back again to the EAC for yet another review.

The sudden revival of fortunes for Vedanta comes days before the case is to come up before the newly set up National Green Tribunal.

This is half the battle won for Vedanta, which was till recently seeing a dead end to its aluminum refinery and mining project in Orissa, especially after Congress scion burst into the scene.

However, the forest clearance rejected by Ramesh will still have to be fought against separately by Vedanta in the Supreme Court.