NGT orders halt to riverbed mining at Shaliganga Nallah in J&K’s Budgam

The permission for mining riverbed materials such as sand and rocks in three blocks was appealed against by environmental activist Raja Muzaffar Bhat. The NGT order, which was passed last month, sets aside the permissions given by the EIAA in May.

The Shaliganga Nallah serves as a feeding channel for the Hokersar wetland — one of the five Ramsar wetland sites in J&K. The site is home to thousands of migratory birds from Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. It is also a breeding ground for these birds.

“Mining on the banks of its feeding channel and thereby disrupting the flow of water into the wetland will directly impact ecology of the area, livelihood of the people living around the wetland and the breeding ground for migratory birds,” Bhat said in his appeal to the tribunal.

Pointing out that the environmental clearances “cannot be upheld”, the NGT has said: “Impugned ECs dated 19.04.2022 are hereby set aside. Project Proponent is restrained from carrying on any mining activities pursuant to impugned ECs. J&K PCB and District Magistrate Budgam shall ensure compliance of this direction. J&K PCB shall also comply with the directions issued above with regard to determination of environmental compensation.”

The J&K Expert Appraisal Committee had rejected the proposal for all three mining blocks in January. After the project proponent, NKC Projects Pvt. Ltd, reduced the size of the proposed mining sites — to 1.81 hectares (ha), 1.29 ha and 2.90 ha — the projects were given environmental clearance by the J&K EIAA just two months later in March.

All three proposals were initially rejected on the ground that area for which ECs were applied, are already over-exploited and depleted to a large extent due to heavy illegal mining.