The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the renewal of over 150 pending mining licences and ordered satellite images to be taken of the entire 15,000 square km of Aravalli hill ranges to gauge the “devastation” caused by illegal mining carried on in violation of a 2002 ban.
The Special Forest Bench led by CJI K G Balakrishnan stayed the renewal of 157 mining licences until the court gauges the ecological deprivation from the satellite images.
Most of these miners were allegedly operating on the sole pretext that they had given applications for renewal, while in fact their licences had expired, the Bench found. “Such persons should not carry on with mining operations. Their lease applications are pending for a long time. We restrain them from operating any further,” the court ordered.
Justice S H Kapadia said it was time the apex court changed track from “trying to balance development work with conservation of forests” in mining cases and give sole and primary focus on rehabilitation of the environment. ENS
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