Page 14 - Mines and Minerals Reporter eMagazine - Volume December 2024

MINING GROWTH

period of 70 years, this significant amount of deterioration has that was shut down in 2002, have no option but to consume
occurred. In 2007, the Blacksmith Institute of the US named poisonous water and breathe in chrome dust. Every household
the resource-rich Sukinda valley in Odisha as the fourth most in the valley has members who are afflicted with diabetes,
polluted region in the world. The state pollution control board gastroenteritis, and skin conditions. At least two cancer
aggressively disputed the findings as greatly inflated, but they sufferers reside in every community nearby mining area. One
nonetheless managed to spark a productive discussion on local named Nayak started farming on his four acres of land
environmental challenges in the area. after losing his mining job, but the yield is still poor since the
soil has been damaged. In addition to the 60,000 people living
ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE in the seven gram panchayats of Sukinda, the effects of mining
have also directly impacted more than 40,000 people in five
According to the Lokayukta Report, illegal mining has caused additional gram panchayats in the neighboring Dhenkanal
significant ecological damage. In the Bellary region, certain district.
species of animals have vanished, including the sloth bear.
The local medicinal plants no longer flourish. In the mining The second-largest river in Odisha, the Brahmani, which flows
region, the entire rainfall system has been altered. According through the Sukinda valley, is the most polluted in the state
to reports, the land surrounding the mining area is completely as a result of excessive hexavalent chromium exposure, which
devoid of vegetation and has no agricultural activities related has increased the danger of cancer-causing carcinogenic
traffic accidents, road damage, and fatalities. Road safety has compounds for the 26 lakh river-dependent residents. Studies
been negatively influenced by a lack of adequate regulation in have shown that chromite-related disorders are to blame
the mining and transportation of iron. for more than 80% of fatalities in extensively mined regions.
Despite claiming that the Blacksmith Institute report was
ONE INSTANCE OF ODISHA much overstated, the state pollution control board's own
“SUKINDA” MINING REGION research likewise revealed significant amounts of hexavalent
chromium in surface water. The state pollution control
About 97 per cent of the nation's deposits of chromite ore, board's report stating that the PH and hexavalent chromium
a key ingredient in the creation of stainless steel, leather, levels after treatment were within the limits specified under
and alloys, are located in the valley in the Jajpur district of the Environment (Protection) Rules was not accepted by the
Orissa high court when it heard a writ suit in May of last year.
After hearing a writ petition in May of last year, the Orissa
high court requested that the central pollution control board
conduct an independent investigation into Sukinda's pollution
because it was unsatisfied with the state pollution control
board's report that the pH and hexavalent chromium levels
were within the limits set by the Environment (Protection)
Rules, 1986. The central board issued its findings in October
of last year, noting that mining for chromite had increased
hexavalent chromium contamination and recommending
the formation of a partnership with representatives from all
miners operating in the valley to take corrective action. Ranjan
Panda, a well-known environmentalist and water campaigner,
questions the effectiveness of the collaboration and claims
that local officials cannot escape accountability since without
Odisha. The complete devastation of Sukinda's terrain has their complicity, mine owners would not have been able to
been caused by the intensive extraction of mineral resources contaminate the region with impunity. Despite the fact that
from a dozen open cast mines in the region over a period of an independent evaluation was completed in response to the
70 years. The area's water has been severely poisoned, the high court's intervention, according to Panda, it is unlikely to
soil is tainted with poisonous materials, the trees are on the alleviate the dangerous levels of pollution.
verge of extinction, and the farms have been left in ruins.
Locals claim that although half the mines are currently closed, INSTANCES OF DESTRUCTION
harm has already been done, primarily as a result of workers'
inappropriate dumping of waste in river water. The problems of the local residents of mining area have
gotten worse due to the frequent disposal of processed rocks,
People within a 20-kilometer radius of the mines, according to mineral-rich boulders left over from mining that cause air
local resident of Sukinda, a local who once worked at a mine pollution by making the region dusty.

12 MINES & MINERALS REPORTER / DECEMBER 2024