Other States - Orissa

Bauxite mining in AP opposed

BERHAMPUR: Environmentalists and social activists in the State are up in arms against the bauxite mining project being actively pursued by the Andhra Pradesh Government.

They fear that the project being taken up without the consent of the Government of Orissa will affect areas of Malkangiri district in the State. They further argue that that it is in violation of the directives of the Supreme Court given in the landmark Samata judgment.

The project is being taken up in Andhra Pradesh by Jindal and Anrak Minerals. But, as per the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report prepared by the Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education (ICFRE), eight villages of Malkangiri district in Orissa will also be affected. These villages are within 10 km radius of the project site.

But neither the Orissa Government nor the Malkangiri district administration was informed about the project by the Andhra Pradesh Government, said Satyabrata Sahu, Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC), Southern Division.

As per norms, as public hearing should be held in all project-affected areas.

But the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board called up inhabitants of these eight Orissa villages for an Environmental Public Hearing (EPH) on October 3 at Chintapalli in Visakhapatnam district.

No one from Orissa attended the meeting.

The situation was similar to the Polavarm project of Andhra Pradesh where EPH was not held in areas to be affected in Orissa and Chhattisgarh, which was objected to by the national appellate authority on environment.

“The eight tribal villages of Orissa have a population of 1,470 out of whom 1,353 are tribals and 83 dalits,” as per the EIA report.

According to the Orissa Bird and Biocultural Survey, the Eastern Ghats area to be affected by mining is home for some endangered species like the Blewitt’s Owl, which is not mentioned in the EIA report.

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