Goa: Mining regime change a disaster for locals

Vishnu Kushta Gimonkar, 79, owns what used to be a 10,000-square metre field, in Pilgao, Bicholim sub-district, in the heart of Goa’s iron ore mining belt, 28 kilometres from capital Panjim. “Decades ago, it yielded two crop cycles of rice, beans, chillies, vegetables,” he says.

A tenant-owner, who came by this land from its previous owner under Goa’s 1964 Land-to-the-Tiller legislation, Gimonkar, like hundreds of other farmers in the mining belt, yielded to the economic pressures and trade-offs from the mining industry.

For decades, he abandoned agriculture and accepted the compensation paid out by the adjoining open-cast iron ore mine, for silting his fields with dust and mineral run-offs, as ore-laden trucks barrelled through and past his fields, from the mine to the Sarmanas jetty on the Asanora river.

Loaded onto river barges at the jetty, the ore made its way, via mangrove lined estuaries of the Mandovi river, to the Mormugao Port, for export shipment to China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and East Europe – an industry that began in 1951 with 4.36 lakh tonnes; peaked in the 2007-’11 China boom at 54 million tonnes per annum; and was shut down in 2012, following the Justice Shah Commission report.

A tussle for control of the Goa mines has always undergirded centre-state politics on mining, including the shutdown in 2012. Colonial-era concessions granted to regional private investors were abolished in 1987 by the central government, while the second renewals of 88 working mines granted by the state government in 2014, were challenged and cancelled by a Supreme Court order in 2018.

Keen to keep mining restricted to established regional miners and avoid auctions, the Goa government initially set up a Goa Mineral Development Corporation in 2021. However, a post- Manohar Parrikar Bharatiya Janata Party state regime, was unable to stave off pressure.

Instead, within months after returning to power in the February 2022 state assembly election, the Pramod Sawant-government acceded to central demands for a fast-tracked auction of the mines, opening up the sector to out-of-state traders, steel companies and miners. It marked a significant shift from the hitherto regional mining landscape.

In April 2022, 159 regional leaseholders and mining firms were served notices to vacate their leases, along with machinery, as a precursor to nationwide e-auctions. Nine blocks were auctioned in two phases, in December 2022 and 2023.

The Bicholim Block I mine went to Vedanta Limited in December 2022 in Phase I auctions under the new mining regime of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 and its amended Mineral (Auction) Rules 2015. In March 2024, the Goa government signed a mine development and production agreement and the company started operations in April.

New regime impact

But as mine regimes change, how are village communities reacting directly on the ground? The Bicholim I lease is indicative.

As the 4.78-sq km Bicholim I mine lease (started in 1951) amalgamated and changed hands from the Dempo Mining Corporation, to Sesa Mining Corporation Ltd in 2007 and finally to Vedanta Limited, residents of Pilgao find their fortunes fluctuating. “I worked with Dempo Mining for 18 years,” Gimonkar tells Mongabay.

In June 2023, 400 local workers, many former tenant-owner farmers from Pilgao and surrounding villages, who had, like Gimonkar, been employed by the mine, found themselves being retrenched, after months of being kept on half wages, through the stoppage period.

Though dressed up in notions of public ownership of mines and mineral wealth, as opposed to the private mine lease ownership regime that existed in Goa, local village residents are discovering a harsher reality, far removed from the concepts of intergenerational equity.

“We got a shock when we realised all lease periods are now 50 years (it used to be 20 years previously) Earlier, the mines employed local villagers as dumper/fitter/excavator operators, wheel loaders and helpers. Now labour is being brought in from Orissa and outside. Even the contractors are from outside. What are we left with?” asks former village sarpanch, Mahesh Volvoikar, 53.

“And to think that we spent four months camped at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, to demand the restart of mining. We were simply used and then thrown away,” he adds.

When realisation dawned, the village united.

In April this year, the former farmers-turned-mine-workers were picketing the mine periphery, demanding restoration and return of their farmlands that have been over decades, converted into peripheral mine usage – access roads, weighbridge locations and reject ore (below 54% iron content) dump sites.

“The Dempo Mining Corporation used to listen to people, take the villagers and workers into confidence, talk things over and resolve issues with the village amicably. There was a limit to what they did, they showed the village respect,” retrenched fitter and mining truck owner Nilesh Phadte (53) told Mongabay. “Now they don’t waste a second to do as they wish,” he adds.

Petitions flood courts

As illustrated by Phadte, Goa’s erstwhile private mining regime that operated in the state prior to 2018, had been smart enough to give the local people a buy-in and stake in the industry. Not just in direct employment, understanding over land and public road use, but also sub-contracting support services like trucking, transportation, river barges, machine and raising contractors. As the old structure teeters, under the new open-auction mining regime, village after village are flooding courts and the administration with objections.

Several Pilgao farmers petitioned the zonal agricultural and the collector’s office for the return of their agricultural khazan fields, that were previously used as mine exit routes, dump sites, machine and office buildings and weighbridge areas, terming these as encroachments.

The village was no longer willing to tolerate mines using public roads for ore transportation, effectively blocking exit and jetty access routes, for a while.

Farmers and the Comunidade of Pilgao, approached the High Court, but were directed to file civil suits in respect of their lands.

The company, meanwhile, told the courts it was willing to follow Standard Operating Procedures laid down by the Goa government to mitigate public inconvenience, dust pollution, accidents and traffic movement. Residents however alleged that the SOPs looked perfect on paper but were not being followed on the ground.

Following the High Court’s disposal of their petition in July, a tussle broke out between the company, government and village residents. The residents were forced to back down, but will continue their fight, environmental activist Ramesh Gauns told Mongabay India.

“Farmers of Pilgao have filed another writ petition before the High Court for illegal encroachment on their farmland. Police complaints were also filed in July, but no action was taken. Instead, using the police force, transportation of ore started in July, despite our complaints and has continued even in the monsoon,” Pilgao Comunidade member and lawyer, Ajay Prabhugaonkar told Mongabay India.

Vedanta Ltd however has disputed this narrative. In a press release in July, the company said “Vedanta Sesa Goa is a responsible mining company committed to transparency and environmentally and socially responsible mining practices. …its activities have caused no damage to property, and all necessary checks have been put in place so that there is no inconvenience to the local community. The company utilises a traditional road, which has been in use since many decades… and is the only available route for transporting iron ore.”

Legal challenge

The Pilgao farmers case in the High Court for encroachment, is not the only legal battle the Bicholim Block I faces. Three petitions have been filed before the Pune Bench of the National Green Tribunal against the environment clearance granted in January 2024 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Aside from 29 standard conditions required for all non-coal mining projects, Block I’s environment clearance is contingent on compliance of 25 project-specific conditions. It permits extraction of 3.0 from Block I, while the Court mandated cap for all of Goa, is set at 20 million tonnes per annum.

Stabilisation of dumps; regular maintenance of siltation ponds and catch drains to arrest silt and sediment flows from dumps; monitoring of discharge water in upstream and downstream rivers; fugitive dust monitoring systems during transport; staggered replacement of 10.5 tonne tipper trucks with 25 tonne trucks to reduce traffic and emission load per tonne/km; water sprinklers along haul roads; peripheral and safety barrier plantations; in-house laboratories for routine monitoring of air and water quality, noise and ground vibrations during drilling/blasting; camera traps for wildlife stress reduction are some of the project specific environment clearance conditions.

Non-government organisation Rainbow Warrior’s petition before the National Green Tribunal, challenges the environment clearance on grounds that “the Environment Impact Assessment Report had completely ignored the history of mining in the region and the environmental destruction caused, while wrongly noting that the project was a greenfield project.”

It said, concerns identified by the Expert Appraisal Committee to curtail air pollution through an Overland Belt Conveyor for material handling, increasing efficiency of trucks had not been complied with, before granting the environment clearance.

No Wildlife Conservation Plan had been approved by the Chief Wildlife Warden, though 29 Schedule I species were recorded as present within 10 km of the project site, the petition stated, adding that the Dr Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary was within this radius.

Environment clearances granted

Similar conditionalities, as laid out by the environment ministry’s environment clearance to Block I, have also been set out by the Goa State Expert Appraisal Committee Ltd, while approving environmental clearance in June 2024 to two more leases, Block III Monte de Sirigao Mineral Block granted to Rajaram Bandekar Mines Pvt (0.9567 sq km) and Block V Advalpale-Thivim Mineral Block granted to Fomento Resources Pvt Ltd (0.3622 sq km).

After the May 2024 general elections and lifting of the Election Code of Conduct, the state government has admittedly been putting the resumption of mining and the clearance of permissions, on the front burner. This followed the impetus given by the central government, and the foregrounding of the industry’s stoppage during the recent hustings.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the government was holding multi-department monthly meetings to speed up the several lengthy processes involved – from applications for Terms of Reference, obtaining environment clearances, holding public hearings and several other permissions required.

In May, the State Expert Appraisal Committee Ltd granted Terms of Reference to Vedanta Ltd for production capacity of 0.5 million tonnes per annum at the Cudnem Mineral Block VII (0.7530 square kilometres). While the Goa State Environment Impact Assessment Authority, in mid-May 2024, finalised two terms of reference for conducting Environmental Impact Assessments for production capacity of 0.5 million tonnes per annum by JSW Steel Ltd at its Cudnem-Cormolem Mineral Block VI (0.3851 square kilometres) and 0.33 million tonnes per annum of the Thivim-Pirna Mineral Block VIII (0.7205 square kilometres) by Odisha headquartered KAI International Pvt Ltd.

Public hearings by the Goa State Pollution Control Board, for Block VI and VII will be conducted in the coming weeks in end-September and mid-October.

Mixed response

Hearings conducted, thus far for some blocks, drew mixed reactions from village residents. Many supported a resumption, for employment and contract generation; others advocated caution and strict compliance of rules; while some argued the negative fallouts, far outweigh any gain.

“Mining has destroyed the social and cultural significance of the village. There are three mine leases in Sirigao village. Over the years, not a square metre of the village was left without significant negative impact, from water bodies to food lands, plantations and orchards to grazing lands. Creeks and ponds have been destroyed and the village faces water shortages,” a local resident, Ganesh C Gaonkar, told officials at a hearing for Monte de Sirigao Mineral Block III.

Digamber K Gaonkar echoed a wide-spread feeling in the village, “There are 15 temples and 90% of the village’s houses within the lease area. They should be removed and then start mining.”

This may well be impossible now.

“The lease boundaries have been retained as earlier, without removing temples and habitations, mainly because the administration thought it would benefit from central provisions that permit the transfer of ECs [environmental clearances] from one leaseholder to another,” Claude Alvares of the Goa Foundation told Mongabay India.

Transport SOPs

Hundreds of truckloads per day in ore transportation and haulage from pit to jetty, via public roads and inhabited villages have been a flash point in the past and continue to plague the present. Acting on a series of public interest writ petitions and applications, mainly by 141 farmers of the Mulakh Khajan Farmers Association, in July, the High Court set out strict conditions and establishment of monitoring systems, along mining transport routes. Extending the scope of its oversight to the entire sector, it directed the DMG and state pollution control board to map all the mining transportation routes and safeguards, for the state and industry.

Despite this torturous process of cranking up for an uncertain resumption, including a spate of challenges in courts at various levels, the central and state government is powering ahead with its processes.

An e-auction process for three more mining blocks in South Goa district, are currently underway on the Metal Scrap Trade Corporation Ltd portal. These are for the Onda Mineral Block X in Sattari sub-district (0.6173 sq km), Curpem and Sulcorna Block XI in Sangem and Quepem sub-district (0.8764 sq km), and the Codli Mineral Block XII, in Dharbandora sub-district (3.7708 sq km).

Bids for these Phase III auctions are likely to take place in December 2024, while a September pre-bid conference drew interest from across the country.

On September 30, as per a cabinet decision to modify dump handling policies, the Directorate of Mines and Geology is set to hold its thirtieth e-auction of 0.76 million tonnes of extracted ore lying at jetties, dumps, within leases and private lands outside leases.

Ore transportation through villages will resume shortly, likely in October, and test the efficacy of the new vehicle monitoring systems set up by DMG and pollution control standard operating procedures that have been put in place.

This article was first published on Mongabay.