Dehradun | April 03, 2016: National Green Tribunal has taken notice of the contempt plea filed by Dinesh Pandey, conservation activist and member of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), who alleged that illegal mining is still continuing on Gaula river in violation of the tribunal's order passed in January this year. The bench ordered the state government and ministry of environment and forests to conduct an inspection of the site and furnish its report to NGT by July 4, the next date of hearing.

In his plea, Pandey has asked NGT to quash the "forest clearance" the state government had accorded on January 24, 2013 for collection of stone, boulders and other minor minerals from an area spanning 1,497 hectares in river bed of river Gaula for a period of 10 years. The part of the forest is a wildlife habitat, he said.

The Gaula River originates at Padampuri in Nainital district and flows through Haldwani Forest Division and Terai East forest Division (TEFD). The total length of the river is around 60-70 km, of which a 29-km stretch of the river from Kathgodam to Lalkuan is being used for sand and boulder extraction.

"Mining is taking place on the Gaula river bed in contempt of th eNGT order. The photographs of February 23 clearly show that the mining activities are still going on in the river. The respondents are not taking any measure to curtail these mining activities which are adversely affecting the ecology and hydrology of the river," the WWI member said.

In this context, he referred to the MC Mehta versus Union of India judgment dated December 10 last year pertaining to river Ganga, saying that the same would be applicable in the Gaula river mining case. In MC Mehta case, the green tribunal had directed that as an interim measure at least 100 m from middle of the river would be treated and dealt with as "eco sensitive and prohibited zone". No activity whether permanent or temporary in nature would be be permitted to be carried on in this. The area beyond 100 meters and less than 300 meters would be treated as regulatory zone in the hilly terrain, for which the state would comply with the above directions. The area up to 200 meters shall be the prohibited area in the plain terrain and more than 200 meter and less than 500 meters would be treated as regulatory zone.

On their part, state government sources said the tribunal at the time of delivering judgment on Gaula mining two months ago had agreed to the contention that since the state government has already been adhering to the guidelines with regard to mining on rivers in the state, hence mining should not be banned on river Gaula.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)