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Judgment
S.B. Sinha, C.J.—The petitioners in this writ application prayed for the following relief:
to issue an order, direction or writ more particularly one in the nature of writ of mandamus directing the shifting of the mining crushing operations from S. No. 241 of Nagampalli Village to any place which is not less than 2 KMs from the residential area of Nagampalli Village....
The prayer of the writ petitioner appears to be that the mining and quarrying operations in Nagampalli Village may be stopped and the crushing units be shifted to some other places for preventing pollution of air, noise and water. A report has been filed by the A.P. Pollution Control Board stating thus:
During the enquiry with the Nagampally villagers and with the Vice-President, Gram Panchayat of Nagampally (V), Sri Mulagada Aravindeswara Rao, it was informed that they are facing dust pollution problem from the crusher whenever the wind blow towards the village. They have not made any adverse remarks with respect to air/water/noise pollution from quarrying activity of the hill.
While quarrying is in progress, the ambient air monitoring was conducted within the village by putting high volume sampler on the roof of the Vice-President''s house, and at the quarry area (50 mts away from the mining activity). The values of dust concentration (SPM) and noise levels in the ambient air in the village as well as at the quarry area are reported below.
While blasting, the noise levels were measured as 70-75 dB (A). The blasting is carried out between 5:30 PM - 6:00 PM, lasting for about 5 minutes. The noise from the blasting operation is momentary and the exposure time is only few minutes.
From the above, it is clear that no dust and noise pollution was noticed in the Village and 50 mts away from the quarrying activity. While blasting also, no impact of air pollution on the surrounding environment was noticed.
The surroundings of the quarry hill are rain fed agriculture lands. An agriculture tank is existing nearby the quarry hill. At the time of inspection no crop in the surrounding agriculture fields was observed and also there is no water in the water in the tank. The village is having protected water supply system supplied by the Panchayat. The ground water is pumped into a overhead tank and supplied through taps. As alleged in the petition, there is no possibility of pollution of agricultural tank, due to quarrying operation and this will not pose any water pollution problems to the villagers.
In view of the above, the allegations made in the affidavit will not stand good with regard to pollution (Air / Water / Noise) from quarrying operation at R.S. No. 241 of Nagampally(v). But the stone crusher by name M/s. S.R. Metal Works, located at R.S. No. 259 which may cause pollution problems and it was directed to implement pollution control measures and meet MoEF, GOI standards.
Learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners, however, submits that when an inspection was made by the authorities of the A.P. Pollution Control Board, only seven out of 27 crushers were in operation and if all of them operate at a time, it would cause sound pollution as also air pollution.
Mr. C.V. Mohan Reddy, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents, however, has questioned the locus standi of the petitioners herein on the ground that the petitioners are not the residents of the village. The learned Counsel would state that another writ petition has been filed, which had been disposed of by this Court by directing the A.P. Pollution Control Board to see that the quarrying operations are done in accordance with the pollution laws. It is submitted that there is one crusher in the entire area.
Mr. S.V. Bhatt, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the A.P. Pollution Control Board, however, submits that the concerned units may be directed to comply with the directives of the A.P. Pollution Control Board.
Having heard the learned Counsel for the parties, we are of the opinion that this writ petition should not be dismissed only on the ground of lack of locus keeping in view the fact that environmental questions are involved in the matter. We are, however, of the opinion that at least for the purpose of crushing machines, the following requirements should be directed to be complied with:
A green belt should be developed around the units;
Sufficient dust control and prevention equipment should be provided where dust is generated; and
All the units must have pucca internal roads as a result whereof, dust pollution would be minimised.
We, however, would not agree with the contention of Mr. Mohan Reddy, learned Counsel, that in such matters the A.P. Pollution Control Board has nothing to say inasmuch as that by reason of mining operations pollution problems are caused, the A.P. Pollution Control Board shall have jurisdiction to deal with the matter.
Having regard to the Rules framed under the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, as amended by Act 37 of 1986, the Central Government is under an obligation to protect and improve the quality of the environment and to prevent any pollution which may be caused by prospecting or mining operations.
In this connection, we may also refer to the National Mineral Policy, 1993 which is applicable for both Non-Fuel and Non-Atomic Minerals. The policy also deals with the question of environment protection and lays down the policy guidelines as under:
7.13 Mineral Development & Protection of Environment:
7.13.1 Extraction and development of minerals are closely interlinked with other natural resources like land, water, air and forest. The areas in which minerals occur often have other resources presenting a choice of utilisation of the resources. Some such areas are ecologically fragile and some are biologically rich. It is necessary to take comprehensive view to facilitate the choice or order of land use keeping in view the needs of development as well as needs of protecting the forests, environment and ecology. Both aspects have to be properly coordinated to facilitate and ensure a sustainable development of mineral resources in harmony with environment.
7.13.2 Mining activity often leads to environmental problems like land degradation particularly in opencast mining, land subsidence in under ground mining, deforestation, atmospheric pollution, pollution of rivers and streams, disposal of solid wastes, etc. affecting the ecological balance of the areas. Opencast mining in areas with actual forest cover leads to deforestation. Prevention and mitigation of adverse environmental effects due to mining and processing of minerals and repairing and re-vegetation of the affected forest area and land covered by trees in accordance with the prescribed norms and established forestry practices shall form integral part of mine development strategy in every instance.
Mining operation shall not ordinarily be taken up in identified ecologically fragile and biologically rich areas. Strip mining in forest areas should as far as possible be avoided and it should be permitted only when accompanied with comprehensive time-bound reclamation programme.
No mining lease would be granted to any party, private or public, without a proper mining plan including the environmental management plan approved and enforced by statutory authorities. The environmental management plan should adequately provide for controlling the environmental damage, restoration of mined areas and for planting of trees according to the prescribed norms. As far as possible, reclamation and afforestation will proceed concurrently with mineral extraction.
7.13.3 Efforts would be made to convert old disused mining sites into forests and other appropriate forms of land use.
In view of the declaration contained in Section 2 of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, the National Mineral Policy, 1993 Guidelines are equally binding on the State Government as well as all the authorities enforcing the A.P. Minor Mineral Concession Rules.
With the aforementioned observations and directions, the writ petition is disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.