A Biodiversity Report for Proposed Manganese waste dump removal activity of M/s. GMDC Ltd.

At Village : Shivrajpur, Taluka : Halol, District : Panchmahal.

Introduction:

The user agency M/s. Mineral Development Corporation Ltd., has proposed that old scattered manganese ore dump removal activity at village Shivrajpur in Halol taluka of in Gujarat was being done after obtaining the temporary work permit. The removed dump was being sold in the market. From which revenue was mainly being deposited with Government of Gujarat. The corporation being allowed to remove the old scattered manganese ore dump out side the sanctuary area is falls outside the sanctuary within one km. of outermost boundary of Jambughoda wildlife sanctuary in the survey no. 136, 125/1 and 100/1 of village Shivrajpur. Since the area falls with in one km of outermost boundary of Jambughoda wildlife sanctuary. The total quantity of material handling will be 13.0 lakhs tones in next four- five years. The user agency has submitted an application for the permission under Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

Jambughoda wildlife sanctuary:

Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Halol and Jambughoda talukas of Panchmahals district and Sankheda taluka of district at 22021’9” N and 73041’02”. Originally the area was a reserve forest having extent of 130.38 sq. km, which was constituted as Sanctuary in 1990. After commencement of Wildlife (Protection) Act amendment in 1991, the area is deemed to be declared as a Sanctuary under Section 26 (A). Area of the Sanctuary is surrounded by forest and revenue villages. Terrain of the Sanctuary is hilly and undulating.

This is one of the good forest areas in Chhotaudepur division. It also plays socio-economic role by satisfying basic needs of tribal communities living in and around the Sanctuary. Local tribals collect minor forest produce from the area for their livelihood. Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary is dominated by teak and mahuda trees, bamboo, and other lush vegetation and is home to large populations of many kinds of wildlife. The leopard at the top of the food chain is the primary predator, and its numbers have been increasing recently. Other large wildlife include the wild boar, nilgai (blue bull, the largest antelope in Asia), jackal, hyena, barking deer, sloth bear, and chausingha(four-horned antelope).

Terrain of the area is undulating to hilly. As per Champion & Seth, (1968), the forest cover is constituted by dry teak forest (5A/C1b), southern dry mixed deciduous forest (5A/C3), Butea forest (5/E5), southern dry tropical riverain forest (5/1S1), dry deciduous scrub (5/DS1) and secondary dry deciduous forest (5/2S1). The main floral species in the sanctuary is Tectona grandis (Sag), Tenninalia crenulata (Sadad), Dalbergia latifolia (Sisham), Acacia catechu (Khair), Diospyros melanoxylon (Tendu/Timru), Madhuca indica (Mahuda), Anogeissus latifolia (Dhav), Lagerstroemea parviflora, Aegle marmelos (Bili), Butea monosperma (Palas/Khakharo), Mitragayna parviflora (Kalam), Zizyphus sp. (Bor), Lannea coromandelica (Modad) and Wrightia tinctoria (Dudhalo), Posopis juliflora (Gando baval). Large number of 'mahuda' trees provide major food supply to wildlife and tribal. Though, 'timru' is scattered, it forms an important source of food. Several species of climbers, shrubs, grasses and herbs also exist in the area.

There are almost forty villages in the sanctuary where the dwelling people harnesses their livelihood through Forest produce, nearby industrial and agricultural activities. GMDC is one of the source of employment local villagers through engagement of the people in dump removal activity.

Proposed dump removal activity site of m/s. GMDC Ltd.,

Regional Geology of the area: Regional geological setting in the area suggests presence of comfortable series of Archean schistose rocks of the Champaner series of the Aravalli Group. The area is already known for workable manganese ore and the host rocks are partially metamorphosed in greenschist facies and are highly deformed in several generations of folding, giving an imbricate structure of the host rock in closed folding. In this belt, rocks occurring under Champaner series are limestone, phyllites and phyllitic shale, mica schists, manganeferous quartzite/ argillite, calc silicates, quartzites and conglomerates. The manganese ore are disposed as narrow and elongated bands and lenses alternating with and parallel to the bedding of phyllite, quartzite and cherts.

Ever since the discovery of the ore deposit in the late 1800, several hypnotheses have been put forward by workers to convincingly explain the genesis of this deposit. Earliest reference of the deposit is documented in the work of W.T. Blanford (1872), based on which L.L. Fermor (1905) investigated the geological bearing and mineralization of the deposit. He had advocated a significant amount of replacement of the quartzite and slates, by manganese oxide. B.C. Roy (1958) suggested the ore to be a product of segregation of manganese from some adjacent inherent source (in unknown disposition) or from deep seated hydrothermal solution. However, the sedimentary origin indicating intense deposition of manganese bearing sediments in the proterozoic time due to oxygenation of hydrosphere, has not been ruled out by any of the workers. Such deposits in the present scenario are expected to occur as oxides and silicate ores interstratified between phyllites and quartzites. As far the mineralization is concerned, the greater portion of the ore is composed of pyrolusite with small amount of fine grained Braunite. However, at some locations, the bulk is dominantly composed of Psilomelane.

Proposed lease area survey and biodiversity assessment :

GMDC was given dump permit over 363-23-77 ha in at village Shivrajpur which is situated outside the boundary of Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary and does not fall in any reserve forest area. The mine lease area with respect to the sanctuary is shown in Figure -1. Nearest accessible city is Baroda distanced at about 60 Kms. from Shivrajpur. Baroda is connected through national rail net work and airport, nearest town connected to the site is Halol distanced at 20 kms. The lease area comprises of a curvilinear hill of around surrounded by flat cultivated land. The maximum elevation of the hill is approximately around 80 m from the surrounding plain up to a maximum of 220 m from MSL near the notch where the East- West trending ridge takes a Northward swing. No major drainage truncates the survey blocks in the lease. However, a seasonal nullah passes through the Southern extent of survey block 125. Some vegetation cover is present in the survey block 136, with hard wood trees such as Teak, in the hill slope and thorny shrubs in the foot hill area. Vegetation cover in the survey block 125 is patchy, dominantly along the eastern margin of the block.

B A R I Y A

T A L U K A

MOTI UMA RVAN N

V ED

D E V G A D H

TALAVADI

RA NJI TPURA Jambughoda Sanctuary J I POY LI

DHA RIA

2.5 KM. E 1 K.M P ANDOL

GA NDHRA A BAMANKUV A A CHALVAD DA NDI APURA GMDC lease area T

ZARVA KOHI VAV

WA V SHI VRA JPUR P HALOL U 1 KM. B ORK AS

R

V A DEK

P Z AGAN J IMI APURA MA HUDIBOR HI RAP URA A T A V I

BAPOT IA NARUKOT BHAT

ROAD

MA LBAR DHANPARI

RI NCHHBAR L S UDHARA B HILDONGRA

JI VANPURA NANI RA N K OHIV AV JA MBUGHODA B HET L AMB HIA SAGVA U

Z AND

MOTA RA SKA

DHOLASADA K ATHIARI K HAKHRIA K B OBDAKUVA

NA NIRASKA

KAT K UI JE SINGP URA PANIARA JA BVERI A T ARGOL

GAJI PURA

K EVA

P IPI A

L AFANI

MASABAR

Fig.1. Schematic representation of location of mine lease and sanctuary area

Biodiversity assessment in the Lease area :

The lease area of GMDC from where dump removal activity is proposed to be carried out is largely dominated by prosopis juliflora with scattered diversity of Mahua and teak woods alongwith bamboo. However, the dump area which is proposed to be removed is mainly dominated by bushes and propsopis juliflora. This may be broadly due to the fact that the dumps are having higher concentration of manganese which might not favour diverse vegetative growth as excess manganese causes swelling of cell wall, withering and bottom brown spots on leaves, etc. causing reduced growth of plants. The overall area shows that it has deciduous type of vegetation. The lease area do not contains any forest land and entire area falls under government wasteland. The overall status for floral species near and at the dumps is dominated by bushes and scattered Prosopis juliflora and small herbs. The area also exhibits some tree plants as stated above. The faunal species found in the lease area are mainly some snakes, blue bull, cow, buffalo, etc.

Therefore, the work of old scattered waste dumps removal does not involve any activity in the sanctuary and no sanctuary area diversion is required. Scattered bushes/plants on scattered location of scattered dumps are required to be cleared. However, based on site it appears that no major vegetation loss will be encountered due to dump removal activity. In compensation of these corporation proposes dense plantation of local available species at removed dumps locations and other waste land locations near the activity area. Further, the activity of waste dumps removal also generates local employment and will reduce chances of illegal activities related to manganese dump removal. The semi mechanized means of dump removal will not encounter felling of big trees but bushes along with Prosopis juliflora may be cleared at scattered location especially near or within survey no. 136 as few patches of bushes are grown over there. Overall the lease area has low vegetation but the tree species like teak, Mahua, khair, tendu, palas, ber, etc. plants are present at scattered places. However their presence near manganese ore dumps are rare and hence any significant vegetation loss/ tree cutting is not visualized due to dump removal activity.

B A R I Y A

T A L U K A

N M OTI UMARVAN

VED

D E V G A D H

T ALAVADI

RANJITPURA

J I POYLI

DHARIA

2 .5 KM. E 1 K.M PANDOL

GANDHRA A BAMANKUVA

CHALVAD A DANDIAPURA

T

ZARVA KOHIVAV

W AV SHIVRAJPUR P HALOL

U 1 KM. BORKAS

R

VADEK

P ZAGAN

JIMIAPURA MAHUDIBOR

HIRAPURA A T A V I

BAPOT IA NARUKOT BHAT

ROAD

MALBAR DHANPARI RINCHHBAR L SUDHARA BHILDONGRA

J IVANPURA JAMBUGHODA NANI RAN KOHIVAV BHET L AMBHIA SAGVA U

Z AND

MOT A RASKA

DHOLASADA

KATHIARI KHAKHRIA K BOBDAKUVA

NANIRASKA

KAT KUI JESINGPURA PANIARA JABVERI A

TARGOL

GAJIPURA

KEVA

PIPIA

LAFANI

MASABAR