National Green Tribunal
Renny Jacob George vs Kerala Pollution Control Board on 4 August, 2021
Bench: K Ramakrishnan, K. Satyagopal
Item No.03:
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
SOUTHERN ZONE, CHENNAI
Original Application No. 142 of 2020 (SZ)
(Through Video Conference)
IN THE MATTER OF
Renny Jacob George ...Applicant(s)
Kerala State Pol sh Control:
Board and Cy.
(a
<& es "er
1. When the matter came up for hearing foday through Video conference, Mr.
K. K. Ashkar represented the applicant, Mrs. Vv. K. Rema Smrithi represented
respondents 1 and 2, Mr. M. Arun represented Mr. E. K. Kumaresan counsel
for respondents 3, 4, 6 & 7, Ms. R. Srinithi represented Mr. Koushik N
Sharma counsel for 5" respondent and Mr. Roy Abraham represented 8"
respondent. So service is complete.
. The above case has been posted to today for appearance of parties, for
completion of pleadings and also for consideration of reports.
. The 8" respondent had filed thei
committee has filed the repo
though the hard copy was produce
Final Report submitted
YY
Tribunal b byw he Joint Co:
<"
colecour Pathané ra xq
eliminary objections.
Hon'ble National Green
The joint
2021, e-filed on 14.07.2021,
.2021 which reads as follows:-
oli
as well as action taken
plan committed by t the g responded. The Hon'ble NGT has
further directed that if any excess mining has been done after
the Hon'ble High Court had declared that the operation of the
8" respondent quarry was illegal, then that also have to be taken
note of the committee for the purpose of fixing the environment
compensation to be recovered from him apart from the royalty,
if any, to be recovered from him for excess mining. The
Director, Directorate of Mining & Geology was appointed as the
Nodal Agency for co-coordinating the same.
Accordingly, a site inspection was conducted on 07.10.2020
after intimating all the committee members and the applicant
vide letter dated 22.09.2020 (Copy attached as Annexure 1).
The officers nomina State Environment Impact
Assessment Authorit 'ala, and the Kerala State
Pollution Control Boar and the applicant, Sri. Renny
Jacob George could n e joint site inspection due to
unavoidable reasons.
Collector was represented by
es PG . we
ing Geology. ged" an
"th® Dis ctorate, to assist oe PRS
\ nd*the Taluk & 4 'the
GI ha® ordered the JQi Q tq.gubmit
8
OI IRL GROyr. 3
ON TS oS SAE
reen Tribunal in the
vide this office letter no. 6916/M2/2020 dated 08/10/2020to
NGT (SZ). As there was delay in obtaining survey sketch form
Tahsildar, Mallappally, this office sought a three months
extension from the Hon'ble NGT vide this office letter no
6916/M2/2020 dated 01/12/2020 to NGT (SZ). This office on
20.10.2020 requested District Collector, Pathanamthitta to issue
strict instructions to Tahsildar, Mallappally to complete the
survey and to submit the sketch and report within 30/10/2020
(Copy attached as Annexure 2). Since there was no response
from the survey team, a DO letter was sent to the District
Collector, Pathanamthitta (Shri P.B. Nooh IAS) requesting him
to look into the matter personally and do the needful. The copy
of the said DO letter i
Mallapally handed o: ,
no. A3-3240/19 darte
d as Annexure 3. Tahsildar
'ketch of the area vide letter
11 via post, which this office
received only on 23.0 py of survey may produce by
the survey team of T;
Tahsil@e and Talu
allppally countersigned by
Wa os
Ss
eine cee = . SS . SS 3
g andSGe@logy ad officersYrot
Nitta' was conduc
Sawa the quarry}
"he saidinspection is att
the site inspection (Copy of the letter is attached as Annexure
6). Accordingly a joint site inspection of all committee members
in the presence of the quarry owner and the applicant was
carried out on 23.01.2021. The copy of the site Mahazzar
prepared during the joint inspection is attached as Annexure 7.
During the joint inspection, SEIAA and KSPCB members were
entrusted with the estimation of environmental damage, of any,
and submit report on the cost of environmental degradation
which occurred due to quarrying.
Description of the quarry site
Shri. Naveen Mathew Philip, Thekkenedumplakkal,
Mallappally West was granted quarrying permits and two
quarrying permits and ing leases for Granite Building
of Mining and Geology,
tions were conducted in the
07 till 2015-16 financial year,
to the crusher until situated
'sore li
=
"SS, ry Was su e 'foun inside the'lease a¥ea ith the lease area. Wy oe SS. . . eS in the averred 8, the first pit SU ea.of E01 60 Ha. In rea-Was subjectetsto extraction of ordinary t eee SR addition to this BSS earth which was "tansporied-outside™ the averred quarry. A crusher is also situated in the quarry premises. On top of the quarry a worship place of the local tribes can be seen. Area is hilly with exposed rocks and vegetation is meagre. The area has rich deposits of Granite Building Stone.
Methodology Three inspections were conducted by the then Director of Mining and Geology along with the committee members. An Assistant Geologist from the Directorate of Mining Geology, Thiruvananthapuram, was posted in the quarry site to support Geologist, Pathanamthitta and the survey team. Besides this the Director of Mining and Geology conducted two site visits to coordinate the survey works:and during these visits necessary instructions were g , Pathanamthitta regarding the assessment of the ry. Photographs of the quarry site are attached with th For estimation of the:
antity of granite Building NY the averred: INS ae KSP members were en & ge, Ae and submit repett 'which occurred d Le so the qary "
legally ¢ extracted from the area. ~ (Copy of the letter is attached as Annexure 8). But the quarry owner has not responded or submitted any substantial document so far.
The Director of Mining and Geology & Nodal agency for coordination of the joint committee had submitted an interim report before the Hon'ble National Green Tribunal on 01.02.2021 delineating the progress made by the joint committee in evaluating the extent of illegal mining that had taken place in the lease area of the 8" respondent.
Assessment of Penalty for illegal extraction of minor minerals Based on role 108(1) & (2) of Kerala Minor Concession Rules, 2015) Volume of the extracted quantity of Granite Building Stone in the quarry by the survey team is given.bel Pit No.-1 Excavated quantity from lease are 5440 m' =863600 MT the water table Seen as water logged (Specific "4. Chi 2.5 tol Excava ted @ Water ue Ss s XE vated from Fit No. in metric tons = 2338 i"
Metric tons Total quantity excavated from Pit No.1 & 2} =30,29,720 MT In metric tons As per records available in District, Pathanamthitta, from the year 2004-05 to 2015 -- 2016 the quarry owner was issued passes to transport 11,72,266 Metric Tons of Granit Building Stone (GBS).
Thus, Quantity of GBS legally extracted from the area = 172266 MT Quantity of GBS illegally extracted from within} = 1857454 MT And outside the permitted lease area } =(3029720-1172266) Penalty for illegal extraction of 1857454 MT of} GBS (Royalty + Price + Compounding fee) }=Rs. 13,42,36,688/- (Rupees Thirteen Crore forty two lakh thirty six Hundred and eighty eig.
In addition to this the d by the survey team of Taluk total quantity of 10175 m' (20350 from survey no's 305/7, 305/9, arry site. \\ \ Office, Mallappally, has re MT) of ordinary earth w.
Ss 326/2,3,4 aNransporte FSS SOR.
misusing the Bi SS = SN .
= Bs ibmitted the 4 Copy of the ie P : 3.
| OOS € joi eepert as Annexure 9.
I Se assessed for illegal mining made only after the preparation of an effective Environmental Management Plan as per the EIA guidelines.
Total Interim Environmental Damages Assessed LA | Total cost of land due to illegal | Rs. 10,086,000 mining activities Rs.
IB | Land Plot damage Rs. 218,317,520/- Total damages on agricultural loss (Rs) for the period of 8 yrs LC | Total ecologic-economic | Rs. 3,433,920/-
assessment of wa LD | Interim Dama for | Rs. 1,358,157,663/-
illegal mining Total Interim Rs. 1,589,995, 1093/-
damage assessed.
SS & 2 . , SS sSa.Single office in & aiid insufficien Ce S ond cting regular, Reg eecR SN SF e ral Squad for each 6 al mining to ater extent. In addition district shall curb T to this local self-government 'offices should also be given responsibility to report rampant illegal mining activity to the authorities concerned.
3. Damage caused to environment through such unscrupulous mining activity is likely to be a permanent irreparable damage. Hence steps to prevent illegal mining are to be executed rather than looking into new measures of reclamation and restoration. Preventing unregulated mining can help ensure that all mining can help ensure that all mining is bound by the same environmental standards.
4. The reclamation of the total damaged area of 5,0430 hectares by filing the pits with ordinary earth is not feasible. Hence water in the pits may be used for domestic/irrigation purposes of the locality.
5.A comprehensive En agement Plan is required to be made in this = « ly two memb hi de signed, the ng the mainta SEE : a Se 8 =~ 3 : iGo file their x ee oo oo . S ccc, enone NX . The official respondents are. "directed to > file. their independent response regarding the allegations made in the application before the next hearing date.
. The above parties are directed to file their pleadings as well as objections on or before 25.08.2021, by e-filing in the form of searchable PDF/OCR 10 Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF along with necessary hard copies to be produced as per rules.
8. For completion of pleadings, objections to the joint committee report and also for consideration of report and preliminary question, post on 25.08.2021 sd/--
tice K. Ramakrishnan) 11