TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The Supreme Court appointed expert committee headed by ecologist Dr C R Babu is presently in Goa to prepare a report on how iron ore dumps should be dealt in tune with Supreme Court directions, officials said. The report will deal with the annual cap on excavation of ore across the State.
The Apex Court in its judgment passed on April 21, had directed the Expert Committee to submit its report on how the mining dumps in Goa should be dealt with, by October 21 this year, and to report on the cap to be put on annual excavation by April 2015.
During its last visit in October, the committee had sought State government’s views on handling of dumps.
The Committee in its preliminary report submitted to the Court has recommended that the gross capping for Goa should be 20 to 27.5 million tons annually – including fresh excavation. This includes fresh extraction and dumps.
According to government records, the State has around 750 million tons of ore in dumps of which nearly 30 percent is saleable. The government, in its Mineral Policy 2013, had proposed export of 25 million tons of ore from dumps annually, claiming that dumps result in environmental degradation.
The other committee members are geologist Dr S C Dhiman, mineralogist Prof B K Mishra, forest officer S Parmeshwarappa and Secretary, Government of Goa Parimal Rai.
