The Hindu : `Environment will be protected'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 08, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

`Environment will be protected'

By R.Vijaya Kumar

BANGALORE July 7. The 36th meeting of the State Geological Programming Board will be held here on Tuesday.

Apart from a detailed review of the entire gamut of the activities of the Department of Mines and Geology, the meeting will devote time to devising ways and means to protect the ecology and environment while taking up mining in the State.

The Minister for Mines and Geology, V.Muniyappa, who is also the Chairman of the board, told The Hindu that the Department of Mines and Geology had been giving serious thought to protecting the environment of the region while leasing areas for mining.

Mr. Muniyappa said that the department was already taking steps to preserve and protect the environment and the ecosystem while allowing mining.

He said though the new mineral policy provided concessions and incentives for the development of mining and exploration for new minerals, stringent steps had been taken to see that the environment was not harmed.

He said that as many as 17 organisations connected with mines and geology, including the Geological Survey of India, the Indian Bureau of Mines, the Department of Atomic Energy (Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research for Southern Region), and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (Nagpur) would be represented at the meeting.

Mr. Muniyappa said that the Environmental Science Department of Bangalore University would also be represented.

Since the Environmental Science Department of Bangalore University and the NEERI were pioneering institutions in environmental aspects, their cooperation and involvement in the efforts of the Department of Mines and Geology towards protecting the environment would go a long way in preventing pollution during mining operations.

Mr. Muniyappa said that the meeting would also touch upon scientific mining with the latest equipment.

The Department of Mines and Geology had already made significant progress in this area but further efforts towards improvement were needed, he said.

The minister said that the depletion of groundwater level had been a major problem in several taluks.

It was mainly due to over exploitation of ground water in an erratic manner. The department had taken up construction of artificial recharging structures (ARS) in a big way with funds from the World Bank.

He said the Central Groundwater Board (CGWB), being a member of the State Geological Programme Board, was also involved in the effort to arrest the depletion of groundwater level in the State.

He said the groundwater wing of the Department of Mines and Geology had also prepared a scheme and sent it to the World Bank for its approval.

The other organisations which are members of the State Geological Programming Board are the Geological Survey of India (Geophysics Division, Hyderabad); the Geological Survey of India (AMSE Wing); the Geological Survey of India (Marine Wing, Mangalore); the Hutti Gold Mines Ltd.; Mysore Minerals; the Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd.,Nagpur; the National Mineral Development Corporation; the Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Ltd., Bhadravati, and the NEERI, Nagpur.

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