BANGALORE: Two months of the Herculean task vested in the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) turned out to be fruitful as it successfuly submitted the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study report of mining at Bellary district to the Supreme Court on Wednesday.Speaking to Express, Dr V K Bahuguna, director general, ICFRE said, “The Supreme Court through an order dated August 5, 2011 had directed ICFRE to carry out Macro EIA study of Bellary district and submit its report to the Supreme Court within three months and we were able to submit it within two months.”The assessment team led by Dr Bahuguna comprised 50 members. The team comprised of scientists, laboratory analysts, satellite imagery analysts from Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Forest Survey of India (FSI) and National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad. “As per the direction we first made a preliminary visit on the mining site at Bellary. Then for 21 days all the team members were on field. During this period we visited all the 104 mines in Bellary, Chitradurga, Tumkur and Koppal,” he added. During the teams visit, members of the team interacted with senior state government officials at Bangalore, held discussions with district officials at Hospet, Bellary and all major stakeholders involved in mining activities. Meanwhile, an extensive inspection of the mining areas in Bellary district with all the team members along with mine owners/representatives was conducted. The visiting team got an overview of ther impact of mining activities on the environment particularly affecting forests, wildlife and on human habitation.“Through the study the team came up with a detailed survey of the impact of mining on the lives of people in the villages, with emphasis on agriculture and horticulture production, the ground water table, health and the socio-economic conditions. All these results were compiled and submitted to the Supreme Court,” said Bahuguna.
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