TOI Impact: Maharashtra Halts All Sindhudurg Mining
Author:
First published in Sanctuary Asia,
Vol. 30
No. 12,
December 2010
The state mining department's decision to denotify the 49 mining areas in the lush region came in the wake of a series of reports in TOI that highlighted the impending environmental disaster. Days after the first report appeared on October 15, Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh had written to then chief minister Ashok Chavan demanding a relook at the leases. He followed it up in November with a similar missive to Prithviraj Chavan, the new CM.
Sindhudurg has the highest green cover in Maharashtra and was declared the country's first eco-tourism district in 1997. Over the last three years, the government granted 53 mining leases — many on the basis of fabricated environment impact assessment reports — in the district, of which four are already operational. Read the full report here.
Source: Viju B, TNN, Mumbai.
