Guwahati, Sewp 16: The Forest Advisory Committee of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change(MOEFCC) has recommended ‘in-principle’ approval for diverting 11.09 hectare of forest land for opencast limestone mining project in favour of a private cement company in East Jaintia Hills District of Meghalaya.
The Opencast Limestone Mining Project (10.71 Ha Mining Area + 0.38 ha approach road to mine) is located at Madan Pyrda, Chiehruphi village in East Jaintia Hills District of Meghalaya. The company- Green Valley Industries Limited is having a cement plant which is in operation located a distance of about 6 km from the proposed mine. This proposed mine will be a stable source of limestone as raw materials to the cement manufacturing unit. There are a total of nine cement companies in the vicinity of the project area.
Altogether 581 trees are going to be affected by the said diversion. The Compensatory Afforestation has been proposed over non-forest land equivalent to the area to be diverted in non-forest land identified at Nongumiang Village of West Khasi Hills District.
The Meghalaya Assembly committee on environment on Friday inspected cement and coke plants in East Jaintia Hills and said economic activities must go hand in hand with preservation of the environment. The objective of the inspection was to see how the industrial activities are impacting the environment. There has already been a lot of concern on cement companies harming the environment in the state.
The forest department informed the committee that the proposed diversion area is 6.58 km from the Eco-Sensitive Zone of Narpuh Wildlife Sanctuary and 7.92 km from the Narpuh WildlifeSanctuary. The area proposed for diversion does not form a part of National Park/ Sanctuary/ Biosphere Reserve/ Elephant Corridor etc. Moreover, the area does not have importance from an archaeological point of view. No violation of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 has been reported and the proposal doesn’t involve displacement of persons. Environmental clearance would be required for the project.
The advisory committee after going through the deliberations said the non-forest land for compensatory afforestation should be free from all encumbrances at the time of submission of compliance report and State government will submit a report in this regard after jointly verified by a team of State Forest Department and Regional Office. The proposal has been approved subject to a survey of floral and faunal of the area under Eco-Sensitive Zone, setting up of a Nature Interpretation Centre and creation of an Arboretum.
The Regional Empowered Committee said since the proposal is near to the Eco Sensitive Zone of the Narpuh Wildlife Sanctuary its impact to the villagers may arise and the study of any endemic species is important since it is also known that there are Hoolock gibbons / elephants in the area. After discussion by the members, it was suggested that since this project is the starting point for all the projects in the area, it would be of importance if a kind of an Interpretation Centre or Conservation Garden can be established which would be of great importance for the whole area.
The site inspection report said the company should take up regular afforestation from the time of opening of the mining activity along the safety zone and in the green belt area. “The proposed mining activity is not likely to create serious impacts on the environment with various preventive measures proposed to be undertaken during pre and post operation period” the report said.
“The floral and faunal study by the State Forest Department is going to be very important activity for the Department since this type of study has not been done earlier which would help in preserving biodiversity/richness of the area” the report said.
