NGT orders probe into ‘illegal' sand mining in Dhenkanal
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Cuttack:
National Green Tribunal
(NGT) has ordered an investigation into alleged illegal sand mining at a quarry in the Brahmani river in Dhenkanal district.
The directive came during a hearing on Friday on a petition filed by a Talcher-based NGO which alleged that sand was being mined illegally over 11.80 acres from the river at Gunadei village under Odapada tehsil, flouting several environmental norms and guidelines.
The petitioner's counsels, Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy (appearing virtually), claimed the project was operating in violation of the Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines, 2016, issued by the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change.
Taking note of the charges, NGT's east zone bench of Justice B Amit Sthalekar (judicial member) and Dr Arun Kumar Verma (expert member) constituted a five-member fact-finding committee comprising officials from the Dhenkanal administration, Odisha State Pollution Control Board, State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), and the mines department.
The Dhenkanal district magistrate will act as the nodal officer for coordination.
The committee has been directed to conduct a site inspection and file a report on affidavit within three weeks. The matter has been listed for next hearing on Aug 19.
NGT in its order noted that the original environmental clearance (EC) granted on March 30, 2021, to the Odapada tehsildar, was conditional upon submission of an annual rate of replenishment study (ARSS) by May 2022 — a requirement that was not fulfilled.
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On July 12, 2023, the EC was transferred to a private lessee. However, SEIAA flagged it as a "violation case", acknowledging that the quarry had operated without proper transfer of clearance.
The petition alleged that although the lessee was permitted to extract only 8,618 cubic metres of sand in the third year, mining exceeded permissible limits within just four days, with over 100 trucks operating daily, suggesting extraction of nearly 2,000 cubic metres per day.
Other allegations include mechanical mining in violation of manual mining conditions, lack of demarcation at the site, unapproved district survey report and failure to display statutory clearances. Use of heavy vehicles was also said to be impacting the river's flow and local infrastructure.
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