NGT bans sand mining in Subarnarekha river

Cuttack: National Green Tribunal (NGT) has banned sand mining in the Subarnarekha river at Rayan Ramchandrapur in Balasore district.
NGT’s east zone bench in Kolkata said no sand mining shall be carried out in Rayan Ramchandrapur sand source in Jaleswar tehsil in the absence of a district survey report (DSR) approved by State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).
The tribunal imposed the restriction while disposing of a petition filed by Abani Kumar Sahu, a resident of Balasore, on Sept 20.
Though the sand source has not been recommended in the DSR submitted by the sub-divisional committee, a private leaseholder continues to extract sand from the riverbed, the petition alleged. Advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy made submissions on the petitioner’s behalf.
The bench of Justice B Amit Sthalekar (judicial member) and Arun Kumar Verma (expert member) said the SEIAA shall take necessary action to pass order for revocation of the environmental clearance granted illegally in favour of the private lessee. “In case sand mining operation is still being carried out in Rayan Ramchandrapur sand quarry in question, the SEIAA, Odisha, shall also take steps to ensure that such sand mining operation is ceased forthwith,” the bench said.
The bench further said the private lessee is liable for payment of environmental compensation for carrying out mining operations during monsoon which is prohibited under the Sand Mining Guidelines, 2016 and 2020. “We, therefore, direct SEIAA, Odisha, to compute environmental compensation in this regard strictly as per law,” the bench said.
However, NGT gave the private lessee liberty to avail legal remedies available under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, for any grievance in respect of computation of environmental clearance by SEIAA.
The tribunal issued the final order on the petition after getting the allegations probed by a joint inspection committee constituted by it on Aug 4, 2023.