eco reconstruction in mining-hit K’taka dists

Rs30,000-cr fund for eco reconstruction in mining-hit K’taka dists

Saturday, 15 December 2012 17:03

PNS | Dehradun

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A Comprehensive Environment Management Plan (CEMP) for the mining affected areas in the districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur in Karnataka has been prepared to facilitate socio-economic and ecological development.
A share of about Rs30,000 crore from the mining companies is expected from the e-auction of iron ores during the next 10 years which will be used for ensuring sustainable maintenance and development of natural resources and man-made facilities essential for providing desired benefits to the various affected stakeholders.
The director general of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Dehradun, Dr VK Bahuguna said this during his visit to Institute of Wood Science and Technology (IWST), Bangalore. He said that the funds will be distributed to 11 different sectors in each of the villages. The fund will be utilised through a Special Purpose Vehicle formed by the Karnataka Government to ensure timely decision-making, effective implementation and proper monitoring and evaluation.
The SPV will be headed by the Chief Secretary of the state. In response to a query, Bahuguna informed that ICFRE has already submitted a reclamation and rehabilitation plan for different mines which will be implemented by the individual mines to improve the conditions and environment in their zone.
However, he stressed that CEMP has a much larger scope where a part of the profit generated by the mining industry out of e-auction (20 per cent) will be used for the overall social and ecological development of all the mining affected areas at district, village and local level.
Speaking on the forest types of India, he said that the previous classification given by Champion and Seth in 1968 does not suit the renewed role of forests today. Calling for change in forest management, he said that issues like livelihood, hydrology and climate change need to be incorporated into the management and, therefore, ICFRE has undertaken the study on reassignment of Forest Types of India to understand the impact of climate change on forest vegetation, devise a forest classification from the perspective of forest management, develop a forest classification system in line with international organisations like Food and Agriculture Organisation and to prepare the change matrix of forest types of India. The data has been collected from more that 2000 sites in different forest types across the country which is being analysed.