Pollution? but so what? 

A PSU undertakes mining in defiance of Supreme Court order

Chinmayee Manjunath
Kudremukh

Balding Ghats: The KIOCL plant and the polluted river Photo S. Radhakrishna

‘It’s aesthetic pollution. The water is coloured, not contaminated. People cannot tell the difference. Environmentalists know nothing,’ says an official

The sight is a shock. Red welts bruising the verdant slopes of the Western Ghats in Kudremukh National Park. Drowning the rhythm of the jungle is the sound and fury of machines. In a clearing amid the shola forests stands a rusting statue of a horse’s head — the emblem of the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL).

A public sector undertaking, KIOCL has been operating in Kudremukh’s iron ore-rich ranges, 110 km west of Mangalore, since 1969. In 2002, three years after its lease expired, the Supreme Court ordered KIOCL to close operations by the end of 2005. The judgement was delivered on a writ petition filed by environmentalists outlining the ecological damage caused by mining. The state government had stated that mining cannot continue indefinitely in Kudremukh. On the assurance that no fresh areas would be mined apart from the 4,604 hectares currently in use, KIOCL was given time till December 31, 2005, to close the mines.

But KIOCL is in no hurry. It has instead appealed for an extension of two years and licence to mine another 370 hectares despite the sc’s earlier rejection. KIOCL’s General Manager (Production) B. Loka Reddy says the output has declined because of a lack of ore but the mine is not closing down. “It is a profit-making company and we have an environmental policy in place,” he says.

The mining undertaken by KIOCL is pushing Kudremukh to the brink. It is the fountainhead of Tunga, Bhadra and Netravati rivers that flow through 11 districts in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. They are facing indiscriminate pollution.

Open-cast mining, practised by KIOCL, uses powerful blasts to loosen the earth and crush the rocks containing ore. Mud and ore are separated using water, and rock powder is sent to Mangalore through pipes. The resultant slurry is stored in the Lakya Dam, built across a tributary of the Bhadra and now containing more than 150 million tonnes of the slurry. The dam had breached once in 1994 but was plugged in time on that occasion. An acrid smell persists for miles around the dam that has eaten into 572 hectares of forest.

Sainath Pai, responsible for environmental control at KIOCL, says the company has constructed two rock-fill dams that arrest mine wash and filter it through bunds, allowing clean water out. “We don’t let a drop of pollutant enter the Bhadra or damage the forest. Our afforestation policy has ensured that 76 lakh saplings have been planted since 1969,” he says.

Two studies, both part of court records, dispute these claims. The first was carried out by the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science (iisc). The study titled ‘Impact of Iron Ore Mining on the Flora and Fauna of Kudremukh National Park’ was submitted to the state forest department in 2001. “Open-cast mining is a very destructive activity that causes virtually irreparable damage,” it says.

KIOCL, meanwhile, makes tall claims. “Out of the total mine lease area, 21.41 percent and 17.54 percent area has undergone positive and negative changes during 1973-96, with 61.04 percent area remaining unchanged. This indicates a net positive development over 23 years,” KIOCL says, attributing the pluses to its environment policy.

The iisc report rubbishes this, saying that the company has termed grassland as wasteland and planted exotic plants there. A copy of KIOCL’s afforestation data shows that the majority of trees planted have been eucalyptus and acacia, both not endemic to the Western Ghats. The iisc report notes: “There is no biological justification for converting these grasslands into plantations of exotics.”

THE STORY SO FAR • KIOCL set up in 1969 • Mining lease ends in 2002 • SC asks company to shut operations by 2005-end • Court orders kiocl not to expand mining • The company goes for appeal, seeks 2-year extension • It wants to mine 370 hectares

The second study was done by hydrologist Jagdish Krishnaswamy. It was conducted during the monsoons of 2002 and 2003, with the state water resources ministry’s approval.

The study records that downstream of the mine at Nellibeedu, more than 68,000 tonnes of sediment was found in the Bhadra over 67 days in 2002. In a single day that recorded 219mm of rainfall, over 19,900 tonnes were discharged. In 2003, 1,52,530 tonnes of sediment flowed past Nellibeedu, with 27,992 tonnes discharged in a single day of excessive rainfall. Upstream, at Bilegal, the study found 2,690 tonnes and 14,115 tonnes of sediment in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

Farmers in Nellibeedu, Magundi and Ballehonnur, villages downstream of the mine, complain of pollution. “The Bhadra is red from June to September and you can actually take iron sediments from the river,” says one of them. Another points out that the fields are now coated with these sediments. “Nothing can be planted and nothing grows,” he says.

Pai dismisses the allegations levelled by the farmers. “It’s aesthetic pollution. The water is coloured, not contaminated. People cannot tell the difference,” he claims. “Environmentalists keep shouting but they don’t know anything. It is because of these people that such a wonderful company may close down,” he adds bitterly.

Senior KIOCL officials laud the work done by Anita Arekal, district conservator of forests in the Kudremukh Wildlife Division who raided the office of an ngo working in the area in 2004. The forest department had then filed 12 cases against ngos for alleged violations of the Forest Act. The accused includes Jagdish Krishnaswamy. Environmentalists declined to comment on the issue, saying the cases were sub judice.

Pollution is not only charge that KIOCL faces. The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report for 2002-2003 points out that between October 1999 and March 2002, KIOCL mined an additional area of 56.28 hectares illegally and was fined Rs 19.33 crore. It had also been fined Rs 115.86 crore for increasing the height of one dam by 100m without authorisation, resulting in the submersion of 340 hectares of forest. For constructing new roads and ripping apart new areas, forest offence cases had been filed against KIOCL and a fine of Rs 3.96 crore levied. KIOCL Chairman P. Ganesan refused to comment.

KIOCL’s appeal for an extension is up for hearing in the sc. Company officials say that workers are not being laid off and neither is production being stopped. The fate of KIOCL’s plant hangs in the balance. But the bruising it has caused to the national park has sealed the fate of several species in one of the world’s few remaining bio-diverse forests.