The Hindu Business Line : New iron ore mines available only in reserved forests — Steel, Environment Ministries caught in ecological tangle

Industry & Economy - Environment

New iron ore mines available only in reserved forests — Steel, Environment Ministries caught in ecological tangle

Ambarish Mukherjee

Since the existing mines are fast drying up, new mines are required to be opened up.

New Delhi , Nov. 17

THE UPA Government is faced with a `Catch-22' situation over the never-ending debate on industrial development versus environment. Now, a serious conflict of interest has surfaced as the Ministry of Steel and the Ministry of Environment are trying to put in place the National Steel Policy, 2004 and the National Environment Policy, 2004 respectively.

The point of conflict is the Steel Ministry's projection of increasing domestic steel production from the present 35-36 million tonnes per annum to around 60 million tonnes per annum by 2011-12 and to 100 million tonnes per annum by 2020.

According to reliable sources, the Steel Ministry wants more mines to be opened up for additional requirement of iron ore that would be required for manufacturing larger quantities of steel. The Environment Ministry's problem, however, is that almost all potential new mines lie either in reserved forests or protected forest areas.

Informed sources said that even for increasing the capacity by around 25 million tonnes to 60 million tonnes per annum by 2011-12 from the present 35-36 million tonnes, there would be an additional iron ore requirement of around 37-38 million tonnes per annum.

Where would this additional iron ore come from? That is the point of conflict and the two Ministries are clueless on finding a way to resolve the issue.

Ideally, the additional iron ore should come from the existing mines. The other options are to divert export of iron ore to the domestic market or open up new mines. However, since the existing mines are fast drying up, new mines are required to be opened up for replacing the existing ones.

And there lies the problem. Most of the iron ore mines, for which estimated reserves data are available, are located either in reserved forest areas or in protected forests, which are subject to various environment protection and preservation programmes.

As of now, both the Ministries have sought the opinions of all stakeholders. Once their views are received, the process of reworking the policy drafts would begin, sources said.

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