Orissa move the Supreme Court next week against the decision of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to deny final forest clearance to Vedanta Aluminium. Last week,the ministry had decided against the application of the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation,with which Vedanta has a buy-and-sell agreement,for mining bauxite on a 7-sq km area in Niyamgiri hills in Kalahandi district. The decision has jeopardised the future of Rs 6,000-crore alumina refinery with a capacity of 1 million tonne per annum. It is already being scaled upto 6 million tonne per annum. Senior officials said the Law Department was actively considering ways to challenge the MoEF order before the SC,which had in August 2008 had cleared the project. The Saxena committee report as well as the MoEF order on Vedanta would not stand up in a court of law and hence needed to be challenged,officials said,adding that the government had committed to provide 150 million tonnes of bauxite to Vedanta. Though Vedanta is not going to operate the refinery at 6 million tonne per annum capacity till December 2011,the company feels forgetting Niyamgiri may not help. What is the guarantee that the same problems that we are facing in Niyamgiri would not dog us at other mines around Kalahandi. Once Niyamgiri is cleared,it would set a precedent for other mines in the region, said Mukesh Kumar,chief operating officer of Vedantas alumina refinery at Lanjigarh. On Friday,Kumar met the Steel and Mines Department officials,requesting for alternative source of bauxite. Kumar said Vedanta was scouting for five-six small mines with deposits of 1-2 million tonnes each within a 30-km radius of the refinery in case it does not get Niyamgiri hills. Meanwhile,an MoEF panel,led by former Union forest and environment secretary Meena Gupta,concluded its visit on Saturday. Tasked with finding out whether the STs and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act was properly implemented at the proposed site of Poscos 12-million tonne steel plant in Jagatsinghpur,the team visited Dhinkia and Nuagaon grampanchayat and spoke to residents of three villages and sought their opinion on the project. The team is also studying the resettlement and rehabilitation package offered to other traditional forest dwellers facing displacement due to the project. The team is examining the enforcement of rules and laws relating to forest conservation and the coastal regulatory zone.
