Green nod for K'taka illegal mines to be transferred to new lessees

The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), a statutory body under the union environment ministry that signs off on the use of forest land for projects, has allowed forest clearance of category 'C' mines to be transferred to new lessees following auctions, reversing a position taken by its parent ministry as recently as September last year.

- Jayashree Nandi

Category 'C' mines are those that were found to be flouting environmental norms on a large scale in Karnataka's Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts in the 2000s following which the Supreme Court ordered the cancellation of 51 mining leases in 2013. In a 2015 order, the apex court allowed the reallotment of these mines by auctioning them. The Karnataka government in a letter dated August 30 this year requested the union environment ministry to consider transfer of forest clearance in favour of successful bidders. And FAC responded positively to this request. "The Advisory Committee, after deliberations and discussion with the Regional Officers and official of the Forest Conservation Division, observed that enabling provisions have been provided in the guidelines dated 1.04.2015 read with guidelines dated 7.07.2021 to consider the transfer of approvals granted to Category 'C' mining leases