National Green Tribunal
Milind Thakre vs State Of Madhya Pradesh Through Its ... on 19 December, 2022
Item No. 3
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
CENTRAL ZONE BENCH, BHOPAL
(Through Video Conferencing)
Original Application No. 58/2022 (CZ)
Milind Thakre Applicant(s)
Versus
State of M.P. & Ors. Respondent(s)
Date of Hearing: 19.12.2022
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SHEO KUMAR SINGH, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE DR. ARUN KUMAR VERMA, EXPERT MEMBER
For Applicant(s): Mr. Dharamvir Sharma, Adv.
For Respondent(s) : Mr. Ashwin Rastogi, Adv.
Mr. Om Shankar Shrivastav , Adv.
Mr. Sachin K.Verma , Adv.
Ms. Parul Bhadoria, Adv.
Ms. Samridhi Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Ruchika Sahani, Adv.
Mr. Shantanoo Saxena, Adv.
Mr. Alok, R.O. , MPPCB, Bhopal
ORDER
1. Heard the learned counsels for the parties and perused the record. This application has been moved with the prayer for direction of the closure of the stone crusher unit being operated by respondent no. 6 in village-
Dahedi, Tehsil- Kiranpur, District- Balaghat (MP) without following due process of law. The brief facts giving rise of present application are that :-
1) One Shri Dinesh Agrawal, resident of Vijaynagar, Balaghat Road, Gondiya (Maharashtra) - 441601, was granted Prior EC vide letter no. 3577/SEIAA/2020 dated 15.07.2015, who transferred the EC to the present Respondent No. 6, M/s Tirupati Minerals for Stone Quarry (Opencast Manual/Semi 1 Mechanized Method) in area of 3.237 Hectares for production capacity of 28,500 CuM/year at Khasra No. 466/467 at village Dahedi, Teh.- Kirnapur, Distt. Balaghat, on the same terms and conditions and validity period under which the Prior EC was initially granted. The EC of the stone quarry was transferred on dated 28.12.2020.
2) That, the respondent no. 6, M/s Shri Tirupati Minerals is also having a silent partner/ undeclared partner Sanjay Kushwaha, having political links, has encroached upon the forest land (बड़े झाड़ का जंगल ) in Khasra No. 465, admeasuring about 13.2940 Hectares as per revenue records, and the respondent no. 6 is operating crusher plant in the said forest land. This is completely in connivance with respondents, having political influence. Thus the residents of the concerned place are even afraid of making complaints against the respondent no. 6, knowing well that Khasra No. 465 is forest land as per revenue record, where it has been entered as forest land (बड़े झाड़ का जं गल). Apart from the Crusher unit, there is storage of excavated earth, as well as transformer and weighing-bridge (धरम कां टा) installed illegally in the land Khasra No. 465 admeasuring 13.294 Hectares. No action is being taken for such illegal installations of heavy machineries and illegal Crusher.
3) That, the stone crusher is operating illegally, flouting the set norms of MPPCB and rules and guidelines issued by the Board. The respondent unit is operating in Dahedi village Tehsil Kirnapur district Balaghat. The uncontrolled emission of polluted air can clearly be visible at any instant, thereby, the operator are in clear violation without fear of environmental regulations and norms.
2. And grievance of the applicant is that the establishment and operation of illegal Stone Crusher Unit in the Forest Land from 28.12.2020, when the EC was granted in favour of respondent no. 6 by its previous owner Shri Dinesh Agrawal, is illegal, unconstitutional under the mandate of Principles of Directive Policies of the Constitution of India incorporated 2 in Article 48A, against environmental jurisprudence and the order passed by the Apex Court and this Tribunal. The respondent is liable to pay the Environmental Compensation for running the Crushing Unit without valid permission.
3. The matter was taken by this Tribunal on 26.07.2022 and notices were issued to the respondents for submitting the reply. The Tribunal constituted a committee consisting Collector, Balaghat, M.P., Deputy Conservator of Forest, Balaghat, MP and one representative from Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board, with direction to submit the factual and action taken report. In compliance thereof the members of the committee visited the site and submitted the factual and action taken report as follows:-
―It is submitted that Shri Dinesh Agrawal was granted prior FC vide letter No. 3577/SEIAA/2020 dated 15/07/2015 later the same was transferred to M/s Tirupati Minerals for the crusher based stone Quarry (Open caste Manual/ Semi Mechanized Mathod) in area of 3,237 Hectares for the production capacity of 28500 Cum/ Year at khasra No. 466 & 467, Village-Dahedi Tehsil-Kirnapur Dist- Balaghat. Based on EC the Board has granted consent to operate (CTO) along with change of name to M/s Tirupati Minerals for stone Quarry. CTO & Copy of EC is enclosed.
The Board has granted Consent to Establishment to Shri Dinesh Stone Crusher at Khasra No. 466 & 467 Area 2.0 Hect Village- Dahedi Teh-Kirnapur Dist-Balaghat on dated 23/02/2016 for Crushing of stone Gitti. Later Board has granted revised CTE along with change of name to M/s Tirupati Minerals (Stone Crusher) on dated 23/08/2022 as per the application made by the PP. Copy of Consent to Establishment is enclosed.
During inspection Committee verified that the Stone Mine & Stone Crusher under investigation is established in Khasra No. 466 & 467 Village-Dahedi Tehsil- Kirnapur Dist-Balaghat, 3 During inspection panchnama has been made by the committee members which is enclose.
It was also observed and verified that the Khasra No. 465 (13.294 Ha) at Village- Dahedi Tehsil-Kirnapur Dist-Balaghat has been recorded as orange category of forest (bade jhad ka Jungle) however this land has only degraded vegetation and also rural road passing across this part land. Copy of report received from Collector Balaghat & Revenue Inspector along with map is enclosed.
During inspection the land was measured and marked the above places by the Revenue inspector & Patwari in the presence of the committee members, which revealed following:
It is found that GI sheet wind braking wall & temporally vehicle stand (with the cover of GI sheet) is in Khasra No. 465. The area about 4350 square feet land is encroachment is found in Khasra No. 465 but stone crusher and mine is in Khasra No. 466 & 467 Village-Dahedi Tehsil-Kirnapur Dist-Balaghat as per EC for which mining lease is sectioned.
The Stone Crusher is situated at about 50 meter from the Village Panchayat road and there is no residential area within 1 KM radius from the lease boundary. The only approach road for the mine and crusher passes through Khasra No. 465. Copy of Map is enclosed.
During inspection the stone crusher was found closed (not in operation) but old crushed aggregate and dust was kept in the premises. This is reveals that the stone crusher was operating in the past without obtaining consent to Operate from the Board.
During inspection it is observed that stone crusher has provided cover screen & water sprinkling system for control of air pollution.
As per information given by Project proponent the stone Crusher was operated in for 10 days during the year 2021 & for 07 days during the year 2022 and about 7165 cubic meter stone 4 was crushed which was excavated from the sanctioned mine as mentioned in Para 1. Copy of reply received from project proponent & letter received from the District Mining Officer, Balaghat is enclosed.
Photographs along with coordinate as taken by GPS Camera during inspection is enclosed.
Environmental Compensation for violation From above findings it reveals that the crushing operations have been carried out by the proponents with consent of Board. Accordingly, the Environmental Compensation has been computed and proposed as below.
As per CPCB the Environmental Compensation shall be based on the following formula:
EC = PI x N x R x S x LF Where EC is Environmental Compensation in Rs.
PI= Pollution Index of industrial sector
N=Number of days of violation took place
R=A factor in Rupees for EC
S=Factor for scale of operation
LF= Location factor
Penalty (Environmental Compensation) Calculation for non
compliance of Environmental law:-
PI = Pollution Index of industrial sector (Red) 80
N = Number of days of violation took place 17
R =A factor in Rupees for EC 250
S = Factor for scale of operation (Small Scale unit) 0.5
LF = Location factor 1.25
(Population of Village Dahedi is about 3000)
Formula Penalty Impose in
Rs.
EC= 80x17x 250x 0.5 x 1.25 2,12,500.00
Rupee Two Lac Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Only 5 Recommendations:-
1. An encroachment of about 4350 Sqft. was observed in Khasra No. 465. The encroachment includes temporary structures, such as wind-breaking wall, Parking Space etc. these have to be shifted by the proponent within the sanctioned area.
2. At least 200 trees shall be planted in the region by the project proponent in coordination with the Panchayat.
3. Fixed water sprinkling system shall be installed in the lease area to control the fugitive emissions.
4. The Stone Crusher shall not be operated without obtaining Consent to Operate from the M.P. Pollution Control Board.
5. PP shall obtain permission from the competent authorities to use the part of road passing through Khasra No. 465.
6. The PP shall deposit the Environment Compensation that may be imposed by the M.P. Pollution Control Board for the violation of environmental rules.‖
4. In response to the notices, respondent no. 5 Indian Bureau of Mines, Jabalpur submitted the reply with the facts that as per Section 23C of the MMDR Act, 1957, State Government is empowered to make rules for preventing illegal mining, transportation and storage of minerals.
Further as per Section 15 of the said Act, State Government is empowered to make rules in respect of minor minerals and as per provisions of Section 3(e) of the Act, „building stones‟ fall under the category of minor minerals. Thus, the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) has no jurisdiction in the matter.
5. Respondent no. 4 MPSEIAA has submitted the reply to the fact that the EC granted by the answering Respondent No. 4 MPSEIAA on Khasra No. 466/467 at village Dahedi, District Balaghat is after due compliance 6 of the prescribed procedure in the light of the regulations and procedure under the EIA Notification, 2006. The SEAC in its l83rd meeting dated 27/04/2015 after detailed discussions made its recommendation to SEIAA that there are few palm trees within the mining area and therefore the Divisional Forest Officer was sought opinion about site conditions. In pursuance of the recommendations of the SEAC the same was discussed in 201st meeting of MPSEIAA dated 22/05/2015 and accordingly the letter dated 02/06/2015 was issued to Divisional Forest Officer seeking information on the same subject matter. Subsequently, the letter dated 03/06/2015 issued by Divisional Forest Officer, District Balaghat itself is evident that the subjective land was not coming under the purview of forest area and the letters dated 2 l /07/2009 and 31/10/2014 also reveal that the subjective land on which the EC is issued by the Respondent No. 4 is actually at the distance of„ more than 250m from the forest boundary.
The Respondent No. 4 MPSEIAA in its 211th meeting dated 23/06/2015 after detailed discussions and recommendation of SEAC to grant prior environmental clearance to Shri Dinesh Agrawal subject to the compliance of the specific conditions whereby it is also mentioned that there is no forest area within 250 m distance from the mining site.
Thereafter, the EC was transferred to M/s Tirupati Minerals in its 648th Meeting dated 08/12/2020 on the same terms and conditions and validity period EC which was initially granted to Shri Dinesh Agrawal.
6. Report of the minutes of 183rd of meeting of State Expert Appraisal Committee alongwith letter to the Divisional Forest Officer, Balaghat has been attached with the reply.
77. Respondent no. 3 Collector, Mines has submitted the reply with the facts that in view of the order of this Tribunal, and in light of the report of the committee the temporary structures, i.e. wind-braking wall, parking space and weighing bridge (Dharamkata) which were found in the land in question has been removed during the inspection. The reply further narrates that :-
―The encroachment alleged by the Applicant on Forest Compartment No. 465 village Dahedi, District Balaghat in the present original application has now been removed by the concerned authorities and further the MPPCB has also imposed the environmental compensation of Rs 2,12,500/- upon the project proponent.‖
8. The contention of the learned counsel for the State Pollution Control Board is that the mine is of the stone boulder and the crusher is used to make store ballast/chips or gitti. The mining of the mineral is an activity, which requires prior environmental clearance as per the EIA Notification, 2006, but the stone crushing requires only CTE & CTO from the MPPCB and that mining of the mineral is a subject matter of the mining department and they are responsible to keep record of the mined minerals and collects revenue/royalty for it. For the information regarding the quantity of mined material, MPPCB also relies on the information that is provided by Mining Department and MPPCB itself do not have the mechanism to evaluate the quantity of the mined material.
The area allotment for mining is also looked after by the Mining Officer of Mining Department / Revenue Department and Forest Authority of the concerned area to look after as to the location of the forest land. Thus the measurement & boundaries of the leased area, location of forest land, revenue forests, their boundaries, excess mining by the lease holder of mining outside the leased area etc. 8 are not looked after by MPPCB. These issues are also looked into by SEIAA, while granting EC for the mining.
The mining was done after taking over the mines by M/s Tirupati Minerals in the years 2021 & 2022 only. The mined mineral was 8358.58 m3 in 2021 and 690 m3 in year 2022. There was "no production"
from mines till 2020. The mine has a valid consent and since no mineral has been produced till 2020, hence there was no cause for any pollution or violation by the mine, nor any loss to the exchequer, for which the deponent has no other option but to rely on the data provided by the mining department. Mining department collects royalty for mining & crushing, hence for loss to the exchequer if any the PCB cannot be held responsible. After filing the present petition it has come to notice that crusher is operating, PCB has issued orders of closure of the said stone crusher on 01.09.2022.
The production from a stone crusher is dispatched through official paper work, which are submitted to the mining department and accordingly royalty is paid by crusher. As submitted earlier by the PCB, that for verifying the production quantity, MPPCB depends on the information given by the mining department. The information that was made available by the mining department vide their letter dated 18-8- 2022 at the time of preparation of the report of joint committee, according to which the production and dispatch data were provided as under:
Year Production (m3) Dispatch (m3) Deposited Royalty/ DR (Rs.) 2021 8358.00 5694.68 693757 2022 690.00 1469.98 400000 Total 9048.00 7164.66 (say 7165 m3) 1093757
9. It is further argued that the respondent was constrained, calculate the period/days of violation on the basis of available information/data from 9 two sources i.e. mining department and crusher only, both of which do not provide exact dates of the production, but only years in which crusher production was made.
10. That the backward integration by the PCB was done taking into consideration the capacity of the stone crusher installed by the respondent no. 6, which is 75 TPH. It means that the crusher can crush the stones @ 75 tons per hour. Assuming 10 hours of operation in a day, the crusher can crush 750 tons of stones and make stone chips/gitti out of it. The density of the store Gitti is assumed 1.41 Tons/cubic meter as per Circular of Mining Department dated 07/10/2020. Assuming a 10 hour/day working of the stone crusher the days required to crush the production volume were calculated as presented below:
Duration Dispatch Dispatch Production Product Capacity According to According (in m3) in tons (in m3) ion in of Stone Dispatch to production tons Crusher data. Days production (in m3 X product of operation data. Days density of ion (in of the of stone Gitti m3 X crusher operation i.e. 1.41 density (based on of the T/ m3) of stone the 10 hour crusher Gitti running (based on i.e. every day) the 10 1.41 T/ hour m3) running every day) January 7165 m3 10100.7 9048.0 m3 12757 75tons/ 13.5 days 17.01 2021 tones tons hours (@750 days to tons/day) (@750 August tons/day) 2022 Based on the above calculation the committee has proposed and an EC on the crusher unit for the days of illegal operations.
11. That the powers to finalize the proposed amount of EC and impose it on the industry do not vest with the Regional Officers of the Board.
MPPPCB Head Office at Bhopal has constituted a committee of officers who look into the proposals of the EC sent to them by the Regional Office and then only EC amount is finalized. The committee scrutinizes 10 the compensation proposals, it may modify /review the EC proposals and then approval of the higher authorities like Member Secretary and Chairman of the MPPCB is required before imposing the EC. Therefore the calculations for EC imposition made by the PCB are not final till they are approved by the due process set by MPPCB for EC imposition.
12. The reply submitted by the respondent no. 6 is to the fact that contention and grievance of the applicant is based only on newspaper cutting and no reliable concrete information with evidence has been placed by the applicant to calculate the exact quantity of the mines or days of the violation.
13. It is further argued that the mining operations and establishment of crusher has been undertaken under valid and subsisting mining leases which was crusher based and was issued to one Mr. Dinesh Agrawal on 15/07/2015. The said mining lease was duly transferred in favour of answering respondent no. 6 and presently the mining and crushing operations are been undertaken pursuant to the said transfer.
That the mining lease has been obtained on Khasra no. 466 and 467 as is clear from the lease deed and transfer deeds mentioned above and that all permission have been obtained for operating the mining and crushing activities on the said lease land bearing Khasra no. 466 and 467 and the answering respondent no. 6 is operating his activities only on the said Khasra no. 466 and 467 on which the answering respondent no. 6 is under taking activities has never been classified as Forest (बड़े झाड़ का जं गल ).
14. In light of the above contrary views and contentions were raised by the learned counsel for the applicant that the violation should be calculated for more days in light of the environmental violations, the Tribunal 11 directed the State Pollution Control Board to appoint or nominate the Senior Officers to exactly see the matter and calculate the environmental violations with regard to quantity and days of the minerals mined.
15. The State Pollution Control Board constituted a committee consisting Superintending Engineer and Zonal Officer who visited the site, inspected the facts and submitted the report as follows :-
I. Background Information:
1. The mine in question, M/s Tirupati Minerals (Bolder Mine) and the crusher associated with it, M/s Tirupati Minerals (Stone Crusher) are situated at Khasra no.466 (area 0.809 hectares) & part of khasra no. 467 (area 2.428 hectares) in an area totaling 3.327 hectares. Previously at this site, mine lease was granted to one Dinesh Devendra Agrawal vide letter dated 20- 8-2015 of the office of Collector (Mining) Balaghat for 10 years for the mining of mineral stone (stone crusher). A copy of order dated 20-8-2015 is attached. The Environmental Clearance for this mine for mining of 28500 m3 of stone / year was granted by SEIAA-MP on 15-7-2015, the copy of which is attached.
2. The regional office of the MPPCB at Jabalpur had thereafter granted CTE (PCB id: 54586) to this mine on 5-11-2015 for the mining of stone bolder 28500 m3/ year. The CTO for the mine was granted on 23-12-2015, which was renewed from time to time on 31-03-2018 & 8-08-2019. The last renewal done on 08-08-2019 was valid upto 12-10-21. Copies of the above CTE/CTO/renewal orders are attached collectively as Enclosure 5 (colly). The last inspection for the renewal dated 8- 8-19 was undertaken on 03-08-2019 by the inspecting officer is attached, wherein he has reported that --presently the mine is closed, mine owner has informed, mine is not in operation, production data is uploaded, which can be seen as nil. The mine owner Shri Dinesh Agrawal had also obtained a CTE for the installation of a stone crusher (PCB id: 75814) at khasra no 12 466 & 467, 2.0 hectares on 23-02-2016, in the name of M/s Dinesh Agrawal Stone Crusher, which is attached as Enclosure 7. The CTE was valid till 11-11-2020. No CTO was ever obtained for this stone crusher, probably the crusher was never established by Shri Dinesh Agrawal.
3. The mine owner, Dinesh Agrawal later surrendered his lease before the government in favour of Tirupati Minerals. The Collector (Mining), Balaghat allotted this lease on 10-12- 2019 in favour of M/s Tirupati Minerals for the remaining period of the lease till 11-10-. 2025. Copy of the letter dated 10-12-19 from the office of the collector (mining) is attached herewith as Enclosure 8. The prior Environmental Clearance (EC) issued by SEIAA-MP on 15-7-2015 was also transferred in the name of Shri Tirupati Minerals by SEIAA-MP on 28-12-2020, a copy of which is attached as Enclosure 9. Regional officer of MPPCB, Jabalpur, also transferred the CTO of Dinesh Agrawal bolder mine (PCB Id: 54856) on 15-01-2021 in the name of Shri Tirupati Minerals (Bolder Mine) renewing it till 12-10- 2022. The copy of the CTO order dated 15-01-2021 is attached as Enclosure 10. Presently the CTO for the mining operations of Shri Tirupati Minerals (Bolder Mine) is valid till 12-10-2022.
4. As per the annexure 7 in the report of the committee submitted before NGT, the mining officer wrote to RO on 18-08-2022 that ―mDr [knku esa iV~Vsnkj }kjk tuojh 2021 ls [kfut dk mRiknu izkjEHk fd;k x;k‖, meaning thereby for a common man that mining of minerals was started by the lessee from January 2021. Further in this letter it has been mentioned that ―iV~Vsnkj }kjk o"kZ 2021 ,oa 2022 esa fd;s x;s mRinu izs"k.k tek jkW;YVh dk fooj.k fuEukuqlkj gS %& la-Ø o"kZ mRiknu izs"k.k ¼?kuehVj½ tek jkW;YVh @Mh-vkj-
¼?kuehVj½ ¼:i,½
1 2021 8358.00 5694.68 693737/-
2 2022 690.00 1469.98 400000
9048 7164.66
13
For a lay man's understanding, the above table depicts that 8358 m3 of mineral was mined (mRiknu) in year 2021 and 690 m3 was mined in year 2022. A lay man also infers from this table that 5694.68 m3 of mined mineral was dispatched (izs"k.k) (of course after crushing in the crusher) and in the year 2021 and 1469.98 m3 was dispatched (after crushing). This understanding is fortified from the letter from the mine owner dated 24-08-2022 which is also attached. The proprietor of M/s Tirupati minerals had informed the RO that in the year 2021 he has operated the mines, in which the crusher was operative for 10 days, in which 5694.68 m3 of stone was crushed and crusher was operated for 7 days in year 2022, in which 1469.98 m3 of stone was crushed and the same information can be obtained from the district mining officer. The contents of these two letters, one from the mining officer and other from the mine/crusher owner consolidate the understanding that mRiknu denotes the production or mined quantity of the stone boulder from the mine, while izs"k.k denotes the dispatch quantity of the crushed mined mineral. If one goes by this understanding of mRiknu ,oa izs"k.k, the total volume of stone crushed & dispatched in 2021 & 2022 together comes out to be 7164.66 m3 while that mined from the mines comes out to be 9048 m3. Further as per the circular of the mining department dated 07-01-2020, is attached, the conversion factor of the crushed bolder shall be taken as 1.41 T/ m3, the weight of the crushed stone dispatched in yr. 2021 & 2022 will be 7164,66 x 1.41 = 10102.1746 T. The crusher capacity as obtained from the Board's record is 75 TPH and considering a daily operation of 10 hrs, the number of days the crusher had to be operated to obtain this output can be calculated as (10102.1746 T)÷(75 T/hr x 10 hr/day) = 13.469 say 13.5 days.
5. The present inspecting team, having the above notion of mRiknu i.e. quantity of mined minerals and izs"k.k i.e. the dispatch of the crushed mineral from the crusher, during the site visit on 13-09- 2022, discussed the about this issue with the mining officer, Balaghat who was present during the inspection. The mining 14 officer clarified that mRiknu is not quantity of mined mineral rather it is quantity of mined mineral that has been crushed and izs"k.k the dispatch of crushed mineral from the crusher. He also clarified that the mining department does not maintain records of the stone bolder that is mined out from the mine, rather the mined mineral that is fed to crusher represents mRiknu and the difference of mRiknu ,oa izs"k.k is the stock of crushed mineral products that remain as stock lying in the crusher premises. He also clarified that the royalty is levied on the crushed material that is dispatched out of the premises, royalty is deposited lump- sum in the advance, and as and when the crushed material is dispatched, the crusher owner has to enter the vehicle number and the quantity in cubic meters that is being dispatched. Royalty@ Rs. 120/ m3 is automatically deducted from the advance royalty that has been already paid and the pit pass for vehicle exit is generated. The various inspection barriers and authorized officers including revenue & police officers can inspect the vehicle and verify its contents- quantity wise as well as the amount of royalty paid. He also clarified that the stone mining as per mining department rules, includes the operation of crusher to crush the mined stones. He also told that generally the crusher has to be installed inside the mine premises, but if the location of mine and crusher are different, royalty @ Rs 60/ m3 for the exit of bolder from the stone mine and remaining Rs. 60 Rs 60/ m3 has to be paid once the crushed material leaves the crusher premises.
6. Based on the above clarification / information extended by the Mining Officer, the total volume of the material crushed in the crusher i.e. mRiknu is 9048 m3and accordingly the days of operations of the stone crusher for crushing this volume can be worked out as :--
(9048 m3 x 1.41 T/ m3) ÷ (75 T/hr x 10 hr/day) = 17.01 days. The above method of calculation assuming 10 hrs/day operation of the crusher has been adopted from the report that has already been submitted by a committee constituted in the matter of OA 739 /2018 15 ―Residents of Gram Panchayat Varahiya vs. State of MP‖. Thus it can be presumed that the stone crusher of M/s Tirupati Minerals operated for 17 days in year 2021 & 2022.
7. Further after the NGT order dated 29-08-2022, the mining officer of Balaghat wrote to the RO, MPPCB, Jabalpur on 31-08-2022, a copy of the said letter is attached. The information about the mRiknu ,oa izs"k.k has been shown as nil from year 2015 till 2020. It depicts that there was no crushing of stone bolder in these years nor any dispatch of crushed material. From this it can also be inferred that there might have been no crusher installation between this period. It is also mentioned in this letter that the lease was sanctioned to Dinesh Agrawal from 12-10-2015 till 11- 10-2025, which was transferred to Shri Tirupati Minerals for the remaining period on 10-12-2019 and the production of mineral (mRiknu) commenced from January 2021. Although, as submitted earlier in the foregoing paras, the mining department does not keep record of the mined material, it cannot be said whether or not any mining of mineral was undertaken, but it can be inferred that in absence of any crusher to crush the boulders, mining of minerals would not have been done. No mining- no crushing conclusion is also corroborated by the inspection report of Enclosure 6, which was done on 03-08-2019.
8. Thus as desired by NGT regarding quantity of excavation from 2015 till date, it can be concluded that quantity of excavation cannot be ascertained as there is no record maintained for the same by the Mining Department; instead record for quantity of material crushed is maintained. As presented earlier in the foregoing paragraphs, no crushing was done between 2015- 2020, and it can be inferred from the available record, inspection report etc., that no excavation was also done during this period. During the period 2021 and 2022, 9048 m3 of mined material was crushed and some stone boulders uncrushed were found lying at the site, the quantification of which is not possible. Hence during the period 2021 & 2022, how much mineral was actually excavated, can only be elaborated by the Mining department, but 16 it can be inferred that at least 9048 m3 of mineral has been excavated plus the excavated material lying at the site, which may be as per visual approximation 200-300 m3. Thus the excavated quantity from 2015 to 2020 stands nil and that excavated in 2021 & 2022 is between 9048 m3 + 200 to 300 m3.
II. The site and encroachment:
1. The site of the industry is situated in village Dahedi, tehsil Kirnapur of district Balaghat at Khasra no. 466 and khasra no. 467 (part), admeasuring 3.237 hectares for the mine and the crusher installation. The site can be reached from Balahgat district headquarters to Kirnapur and then a PMGSY road leads to the site situated approximately 10 km off the Kirnapur- Lanji main road. The area is said to be naxalite affected and a 208-
Kobra settlement has also been made off Kirnapur- Lanji main road to counter the threats of naxalites. The nearest village is Dahedi, which lies approximately 0.6 to 0.8 km west aerially from the mine site. The co-ordinates of the site are 21°40'11.7336"N and 80°21'50.4776"E approximately. A Google earth screen shot and mobile app map location screen shots are attached collectively.
2. The mine lies on the hill slopes of a hill, where few other mines are also operative nearby. The crusher has been located in the foot hills on a plane section of the leased land. Apart from the leased land in khasra no. 466, & Kh. No.467 (part), the mine / crusher has also obtained permission from the district administration for the stocking of the crushed mineral on kh. No. 467, the area of which is 2.00 hectares. Copy of the order dated 07-01- 2022 is attached as Enclosure 14. The khasra maps showing the mine and crusher as well as the area for storage are attached as Enclosure 15 A & 15 B. The adjoining disputed forest land i.e. khasra No. 465 is a revenue forest, land which lies adjoining the northern boundary of the mine/ crusher. The area of this revenue forest is 13.294 hactares. It is registered as cM+s >kM+ dk taxy in the revenue records, and its kh. no. has been marked by inspecting team for the sake of brevity.
173. There are few trees of the local variety standing in this piece of revenue forest. There is a kuchcha road between the boundary of the crusher / mine (Kh. no. 466 -467) and revenue forest khasra 465. This kuchcha road passes through kh. No. 465 and has been formed due to the commuting of the villagers. It serves as a short cut to villages like Saleh, Benegaon etc. The northern boundary of this khasra 465 is formed by a metalled road which comes from Dahedi village side and leads towards Saleh & Benegaon. It was also observed that villagers have also encroached upon this piece of revenue forest doing agriculture and a couple of paddy farms are also present here.
4. It was found by the earlier committee in its report, ‗that encroachment to the tune of 4350 sq.ft has been noticed by the revenue officers by the crusher unit in the revenue forest kh.no. 465 by constructing some portion of its weigh bridge, a temporary vehicle shed, wind breaking wall etc. The revenue officials had taken measurements at that time and established munaras to demarcate the boundary of the Kh. no. 465. During this inspection it is found that the mine / crusher management has removed the weigh bridge, temporary vehicle shed, wind breaking wall etc. from the kh.no 465. A kuchcha approach road approximately 60 feet long from the metalled road to the mine / crusher entry gate, passes through Kh. no. 465 and this approach road was also counted as encroachment. However apart from this approach, the mine / crusher has no other easy right of way to approach their premises from the metalled road.
5. The kh. no 465 is a big chunk of land and also touches upon that portion of kh. no. 467 where the mine / crusher management has already obtained permission to store its crushed material. Munaras have been also fixed here, but it was observed that between the line of sight of two munaras, some small quantity of crushed material is still lying and its removal has been hampered due to the continued rains in the area. Mine / crusher management has been instructed to remove the material at the earliest, which, although is a small quantity, but obstructs the line of sight between two munaras 18 and constitutes encroachment. The revenue officials present- the patwari and revenue inspector were also instructed to install more number of munaras so as to clearly ascertain the boundaries of the Kh. no. 465 so that no confusion arises any further.
6. It was also communicated to the inspecting team by the revenue officials that the mine and crusher (inoperative at the time of inspection), have been installed in the allotted leased area of kh. no. 466 & 467(part) and no mining portion or crusher portion lies in the encroached land. The active mining portion is far from the khasra No. 465 and crusher portion is near to it. The district mining officer was also instructed to install more munaras to clearly establish the boundaries of the allotted land. During writing of this report,-the mining officer has forwarded certain photographs pertaining to the installation of more munaras, the relevant photographs are attached.
7. The SDO of forest department present during the inspection pointed out that the kh. no. 465 is not a forest department's land and rather a designated revenue forest land, and forest department do not exercise any control in revenue forest area. The designated forest department's forest area lies around 2.0 km away from the mine/ crusher area. He also informed that forest department has already issued NOC letter for kh. no. 466 & 467 as they are not within 250 m from the forest compartment, copy of that letter dated 21- 07-2009 is attached.
8. It was also noticed by the inspecting team, that the mine lies in a hilly portion with lot of OB of murrum and green cover of shrubs and palm trees. The mine is still in development stage and only a small portion has been exposed for mining. The OB has been used to make primary crusher platform and has also been dumped inside the lease boundary. The crusher comprises of a primary crusher of 100 HP motor, 4 secondary crushers, each with 60 HP motors, two vibratory screens each equipped with 40 HP motor and 8 belts for metal size 80 mm, 60mm, 40 mm, 20 mm, 10 mm, 06mm dust and a return belt to primary crusher, each running through 20 HP motor. Water sprinklers 19 have been installed at the jaw crusher & vibratory screens and screens have been covered from 3 sides. Since the crusher was not operational, the efficacy of the PCEs cannot be commented upon, but all round wind breaking wall etc has not been made. Similarly the mine is hilly, garland drain has been made at the foothill, but it was observed that the silt flows in the drain near the material stock area, for which gabion wall / siltation pond needs to be made to trap the silt. It has been informed that the RO has ordered closure of the crusher on 1-9-2022, a copy of which is attached.
9. To sum up, the encroachment of 4350 sq.ft., observed earlier has been almost removed Some material that is lying outside the stock yard boundary in khasra 465, needs to be removed, for which instructions have been given to the mine/crusher owner. The crusher owner expressed his innocence in the matter that due to non clear boundary line between his land and govt. revenue forest land, some encroachment had happened un-intentionally, that has been removed and remaining spread of some material will be cleared as soon as the rain permits. The removal of encroachment from the government land is the responsibility of the district administration and they may be directed to take suitable steps to remove encroachment that remains. The mine / crusher management should also obtain permission from the district administration to use the approach road that passes through kh. no. 465.
III. Environmental Compensation:
1. Shri Tiruapti Minerals (Bolder Mines) holds a valid consent from MPPCB which is valid till 12-10-2022. So far as mining of minerals is concerned, the mine holds a valid CTO. On the other hand the crusher installed did not have a valid CTE for its installation nor any CTO for stone gitti production. Still the crusher was, installed by the proprietor and operations were permitted by the Mining department. This fact is undisputed, because the department has been collecting the royalty for the same. A discussion with the mining officer revealed that stone 20 mining as per their departmental norms, is generally associated with the installation of stone crusher. Hence their mining permission include the operation of a crusher. He elaborated that [kfut] iRFkj dk mÙ[kuh iV~Vk ¼Øs'kj vk/kkfjr½ is written in their office orders.
2. On the other hand, mining of minerals require EC, but operation of a crusher does not require any EC. After EC, mine is required to obtain CTE as well as CTO from the MPPCB and if crusher is installed it is also required to obtain CTE & CTO from MPPCB. If the proponent so desires, he may obtain a combined CTE / CTO for both mining and stone crushing. In the present case no CTE / CTO was obtained prior to installing / running the crusher and mining department has not asked the proprietor to submit the copies.
3. After the filing of this petition, the response from the mining department seems to be piece-meal; information as required, were not supplied completely in one go. The first such reply can be traced back to their letter dated 18-8-2022 which is enclosed in the previous committee report.. Other response was given on 31-08-2022, which has been given place in Enclosure. Now a fresh response has been sent on 09-09-2022, which is attached. A bare perusal of these three letters reveal that the detailing of the information has increased sequentially from 18-8-2022 to 31-08-2022 and 09-09-2022.
4. Now in this new letter of 09-09-2022, it has been clearly mentioned that Dinesh Agrawal neither mined the minerals nor installed a stone crusher during his tenancy from 2015 to 2019. After taking over by the new owner in 2019, new owner also did not do anything in year 2020, and has started stone crushing since January 2021. The crusher operated in the month of January 2021 till December 2021, it remained inoperative in the months Jan 2022 to June 2022 and again operated in July & August 2022.
5. From the production data month-wise, it cannot be said that it had operated at its full 48 capacity of 75 T/hr for 10 hours a day for all the days of a month. As ret the installed capacity, the 21 crusher can crush 750 T of stone in a day production and 18750 T in month of 25 days operation. On the contrary the maximum production that has been taken from the crusher in month of June 2022 was 3120 T. It shows that the crusher never operated at full capacity.
6. Hence in this backdrop, the assessment of environmental compensation stands to be a ticklish issue. One method of assessment may be the days of operation of stone crusher as has been worked out at para 2.6 to 2.7. Based on that, the maximum number of days of operation of crusher are 17.01 say 17, and the EC can be calculated as under:
EC =PI x N x R x S x LF ; where:-
EC is Environmental R=A factor in Rupees (Rs.) for Compensation in Rs. EC i.e. 250 PI = Pollution index of industrial S = Factor for scale of operation sector i.e. 80 for Red category i.e. 0.5 for small scale N = Number of days of violation LF = Location factor i.e. 1.0 for took place i.e. 17 city/town < 1 million population Hence EC can be assessed as -
EC = 80 x 17 x 250 x 0.5 x 1.0 = Rs. 1,70,000.00
7. Another stringent way, when all the month-wise data of operations have been made available now, is to consider the operations of the crusher illegal since January 2021 till August 2022 i.e. without CTE / CTO. Thus for full one year and 8 months (till a closure order was issued on 01-09-2022 by the RO) the crusher operated without CTE/CTO. Based on that the days of violation for full one year of 2021 can be taken as 365 and for 8 months of the year 2022, the days of violation will be 243 days. Total days of illegal operations without CTE & CTO comes out to be 608 days and the EC comes out to be:
EC = 80 x 608 x 250 x 0.5 x 1.0 = Rs. 60, 80,000.00
8. As per the CPCB publication ―Report of the CPCB In-house Committee on Methodology for Assessing Environmental Compensation and Action Plan to Utilize the Fund‖ of 2019, and 22 MPPCB order dated 04-04-2022, the minimum amount of compensation should be Rs. 5000/ day. Accordingly for 608 days of violation the minimum amount of EC can be worked out as under:
EC= 608 x 5000 = 30,40,000.00
9. Thus the EC calculation with various options have been presented in para 4.8 to 4.10. All the EC options as may be possible, were considered and presented by the inspecting team as mentioned in para 4.8 to 4.10. A considered decision on the imposition of EC % may be taken by the EC committee.
IV. Conclusion:
1. Based on the records obtaining before the inspecting team and submissions made in the foregoing paras, following conclusions can be drawn:
1.1 About Encroachment:
1.1.1 It is true that M/s Triupati Minerals has encroached upon the Kh. no. 465, which happens to be a revenue forest land. The encroachment to the tune of 4350 sqft was found by the previous committee, which has been removed, some crushed material stock still lies in the kh. no. 465 which need to be removed and shifted in kh.no. 467 allotted to M/s Triupati Minerals for stocking. This removal should be accomplished at the earliest, as soon as the rainy weather permits. However the responsibility lies with the revenue department to ensure compliance. The details are discussed in Para 3.0 of the present report.
1.1.2 Quantity of excavation from 2015 till date: From the information obtaining on records, the excavation was not done from 2015 till 2020. It was started from January 2021 and around 9048+ 200 to 300 m' stone has been excavated as discussed under Para 2.0 of this report.
1.1.3 Calculation of environmental compensation as per rules:
The calculation of environmental compensation as per rules considering various aspects has been presented under Para 4.0 of the present report.‖ 23
16. The committee has further submitted the report filed by the office of Divisional Forest Officer with the facts that the area is 250 meter away from the forest land.
17. The only contention of the learned counsel of the applicant raised is that calculation of the environmental compensation was not in accordance with the law. We have gone through the report of the committee which described, the violations in para 4.9 and calculated the environmental compensation in para 4.10. So far as the removal of the encroachment is concerned, the learned counsel for the State Sh.
Sachin K. Verma has submitted that the encroachment has been removed.
18. The facts also find place in the joint committee report. So far as the calculation of environmental compensation is concerned, it is within the domain of the State Pollution Control Board, being a statutory authority and it is not desirable to interfere in the statutory work of the State Pollution Control Board. We expect that the State Pollution Control Board shall proceed in accordance with law for calculation of environmental compensation and for its realisation in accordance with law after giving the opportunity of the hearing. Since the realisation of compensation and any order with regard it would be an appealable order thus it is not desirable to intervene in the affairs of the working of the State Pollution Control Board. We direct the State Pollution Control Board to act in accordance with law and to proceed for environmental compensation in light of the facts as contended in para 4.9 and 4.10 of the Joint Committee report.
19. The application dated 15.09.2022 moved by State Pollution Control Board with regard to the order dated 29.08.2022 and other pending 24 I.As are disposed of accordingly and are merged with the final order and the remarks against PCB stands withdrawn.
20. State Pollution Control Board and mining authorities are further directed to inspect periodically with regard to the violation and to take necessary action in accordance with law. In addition to the calculation and the realisation of the environmental compensation by PCB we further direct the Collector, Balaghat, to ensure the removal of encroachments, if any and also to ensure that there should not be any further encroachment in violation of environmental rules.
21. The Original Application No. 58/2022 stand disposed of accordingly.
Sheo Kumar Singh, JM Dr. Arun Kumar Verma, EM 19th December, 2022 OA No. 58/2022 (CZ) PN 25