Project Justification Report

PROJECT JUSTIFICATION REPORT

PICKING OF BALU/BOULDER/BAJRI MINE ATVILLAGE- DHAKRANI, TEHSIL- VIKASNAGAR, DISTRICT- DEHRADUN, UTTARAKHAND STATE COVER 2.5893 HA AREA IN RESPECTOF ASSAN WETLAND CONSERVATION AREA

PROJECT PROPONENT SMT, KUSUMLATA W/O YESH PAL SING C/O SHIVA DREDGERS , VILLAGE- RUHALKI DAYAPUR POST –BHAGWANPUR DISTRICT-HARIDWAR, UTTARAKHAND

PROJECT JUSTIFICATION REPORT For Picking of Balu, Bajri & Boulder Mine at Village- Dhakrani, Tehsil- Vikasnagar, Tehsil- Vikas Nagar of Dehradun District and Uttarakhand State cover 2.5893 hectare of area

TABLE OF CONTENT Sl. No. Description Page No. 1 Project Background 2 2 Site Location and Description 2 3 Salient Features of the Study Area 2 4 Mining Methodology 3 5 Mine Lease land 3 6 Mining Minerals 3 7 Existing Land Use Pattern 3 8 Mine Description 3 9 Reserves 4 10 Solid Waste Generation & Its Management 4 11 Infrastructure 4 12 Disposal of Mining Machinery 4 13 Safety and Security 4 14 Environment Management Plan 5

PROJECT OWNER/LESSEE Page I SMT, KUSUMLATA W/O YESH PAL SING C/O SHIVA DREDGERS, VILLAGE- RUHALKI DAYAPUR POST –BHAGWANPUR DISTRICT-HARIDWAR, UTTARAKHAND UTTARAKHAND

PROJECT JUSTIFICATION REPORT For Picking of Balu, Bajri & Boulder Mine at Village- Dhakrani, Tehsil- Vikasnagar, Tehsil-Vikas Nagar of Dehradun District and Uttarakhand State cover 2.5893hectare of area

1. PROJECT BACKGROUND The project has been proposed for an annual production of72513 TPA (403285cubic meters)of Balu, Bajri & Boulder by open cast manual extraction method in river bed. The lease area is private land. The organization is a partnership firm. The project cost is Rs. 6.5 lac.

There is practically no soil cover on top profile of river bed section proposed for mining, however, if some soil is available it will be removed and carefully stored for use in plantation purpose. No solid waste other than negligible quantity of silt/silty clay, which gets deposited as crust material on the bed profile, shall be scraped and carefully stored for depositing into the mine pits in the river bed or in the upper terraces earmarked for plantation purpose.

During monsoon season, when the river reaches high stages, Yamuna River has significant catchment area and its transports bed load material and sediments which gets accredited at such stretch which has wider river width and has concave bank.

2. SITE LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION The mine lease is located at Dhakrani Village, Vikas Nagar Tehsil and District-Dehradun of Uttarakhand. The coordinate of mine lease area is between 30026’45.4” N” ”and 77042’14.7” Ethis is a river bed mining project. Figure 1 shows the location map of the mine lease area. SALIENT FEATURES OF THE MINE LEASE AREA The details are described in below table: Particulars Details Mine Lease Coordinate Latitude : 30026’45.4” N

Longitude: 77042’14.7” E Village Dhakrani, Mine Lease Area 2.5893hectares Interstate Boundary Yes (Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh) Site Elevation Highest Elevation: 420 m AMSL Lowest Elevation : 420.5 m Topography TheAMSL mine lease area lies in the river bed. The elevation of the mining site varies between 421 to 421 m AMSL. No change in topography shall take place due to removal/collection of balu, bajri and boulder in shallow depth pits up to 1.5 m. Toposheet No. H43L15 Nearest Town Vikas Nagar 6.5 km in SES direction from the mine lease area Nearest National / State Highway NH-123, 2.8 km in SES direction from the mine lease area Nearest Railway Station Dehradun Railway station about 38.0 km in SE direction from the mine lease area

PROJECT OWNER/LESSEE Page 1 SMT, KUSUMLATA W/O YESH PAL SING C/O SHIVA DREDGERS, VILLAGE- RUHALKI DAYAPUR POST –BHAGWANPUR DISTRICT-HARIDWAR, UTTARAKHAND

Particulars Details Nearest Airport Jolly Grant Airport about 68.0 km in SE direction from the mine lease area Ecological Sensitive Areas The mine lease area is 2.35 km away in SW direction from the (Wildlife Sanctuaries & National boundary of Assan Wetland Conservation Reserve, Dehradun. Park) Nearest River / Water Body Mining is being carried out in the river bed of Yamuna River. Seismic Zone Seismic zone-IV (as per 1893:2002) 4. MINING METHODOLOGY Opencast manual method of mining was proposed to be adopted in the proposed river bed mine. The opencast mining process for extraction of stone, sand and bajri primarily involves scooping the mineral through use of implements like spade, pick axe and shovel etc. The loading of mineral shall be done manually and transported by tipper (with capacity 9.0 to 10.2 metric tonnes), tractor trolley small (with capacity 3 metric tonnes), tractor trolley big (with capacity 6 metric tonnes) to the storage points located outside the mining lease.

DRILLING: - No drilling has been proposed nor has been done and as such there is no change in the proposed method of mining.

BLASTING: - Since no blasting has been proposed nor has been done, there is no change in this system.

5. MINE LEASE LAND The mine lease area is about 2.5893hectare of private land and belongs to project proponent and the mining will be for five years.

6. MINING MINERALS The reserve of the minerals in the mine lease area is balu, bajri and boulder and will be mined out with manually. The balu, bajri and boulder production target from the mine lease area is 72513 TPA (403285 cubic meters)considering the mining in 1.5 m depth. The mine will be worked only in day time. The proposed annual target production has been worked out on the basis of mineable area with maximum mining depth of 1.5 m, due to formation of big island of shoal deposits extending in about 300-400m width. On the basis of the nature of RBM (River Borne Material) in the boulder reach of the river, the matrix comprises of the bed load, mainly comprising of boulder, pebble, cobble, bajri and sand. During monsoon season, the high intensity and duration of rain fall result into high floods and sometime the flesh flood also. The bank of the river in the upper reaches are made-up of friable material, which is easily eroded. The river bed material and the suspended solids material mainly constitutes of balu, bajri& boulder, which gets settled into the beds with depressed elevation and into PROJECT OWNER/LESSEE Page 2 SMT, KUSUMLATA W/O YESH PAL SING C/O SHIVA DREDGERS , VILLAGE- RUHALKI DAYAPUR POST –BHAGWANPUR DISTRICT-HARIDWAR, UTTARAKHAND

such pockets formed during the mining in pre-monsoon season. The annual target production is likely to be achieved during the year of normal rainfall in the catchment of Yamuna River.

7. EXISTING LAND USE PATTERN The land use of the mine lease area is river body classified as private waste land and belongs to project proponent.

8. MINE DESCRIPTION Topography: - The mine lease area is a river bed and flowing from NE to SW. The highest elevation of the mine lease area is 420mRL while the lowest elevation is 420.5mRL.

General Geology: - Geologically Dehradun can divided into three major units; Lesser Himalayan Formation, Siwalik Formation and the Alluvium covered valley depression. The important rock types exposed in the area are phylites, slate, quartzite and sandstone belonging to the Krol Formation.

The Middle Siwalik is dominated by friable grey colored sand stones & upper siwaliks is represented by conglomerates, which show an upward-coarsening succession in the alluvial fan system. Middle Siwalik it is composed of grey, salt and pepper textured poor to moderately sorted, fine to coarse grained multistoried sandstone with subordinate amount of mudstone. Multistory sandstone complex of Middle Siwalik exhibits vertical facies variation from sandstone-mudstone to sandstone-mudstone- conglomerate. The Upper Siwalik is predominately made up of thick succession of Pre-Tertiary clast derived from the Lesser Himalaya with subordinate sandstone and mudstone facies, represented by Boulder Conglomerate Formation.

Doon Gravel: - The valley areas are filled by the alluvium. On the basis of lithology and structural framework, the Doon gravels are further categorized into three units (A, B and C).

Unit-A: - It is mainly composed of clast derived from lesser Himalayan limestone, shale/slate and Lower Tertiary purple and bff colored green sandstone. The clasts are sub-angular to sub-rounded, granular to pebble size, embedded in fine grained matrix.

Unit-B: - It is predominantly composed of rounded to sub rounded boulders and pebbles, mainly of quartzite together with sandstone and phyllite. This composition of clast indicates that Unit-B is derived from the Upper Siwalik Boulder Conglomerate along with Middle Siwalik sandstone and Lesser Himalayan phyllite and quartzite.

Unit-C: - This unit consists of poorly sorted angular to sub-angular granules and pebbles interlayered with large pebbles and sometimes boulders. Unit-C gravel is widely distributed along the south of Santaurgarh thrust and represents the youngest gravel unit of the fan. Away from the thrust clast size decrease and mud and silt content increases.

PROJECT OWNER/LESSEE Page 3 SMT, KUSUMLATA W/O YESH PAL SING C/O SHIVA DREDGERS , VILLAGE- RUHALKI DAYAPUR POST –BHAGWANPUR DISTRICT-HARIDWAR, UTTARAKHAND

9. RESERVES

Due to the river bed mining project, the annual replenishment after floods the mineable reserves and production during the lease period has been assessed as under below:-

Total mineable reserves = 72513 TPA (403285cubic meters) Total production in next three = 217539 tonnes (120855 cubic meter) years@217539tonnes per annum considering mining in 1.5 Total estimated production in five years = 362565 tonnes (201425 cubic meter) m depth only Since the deposition of bed material and its transportation by the attractive force created during high floods is a natural and continual phenomenon the mined out area annual gets deposited. However, deposit may vary as per rainfall and transportation of the material from upper reach.

Loading Equipments: - All loading will be done manually by head load using cane baskets.

Transport from mines head to the destination: - The mode of the transport of mineral to the dispatch point will be by tippers and tractor trolley. The number will depend on the quantity to be dispatched.

10. SOLID WASTE GENERATION & ITS MANAGEMENT No solid waste other than negligible quantity of silt/silty clay, which gets deposited as crust material on the bed profile, shall be scrapped and carefully stored for depositing into the mine pits in the river bed or in the upper terraces earmarked for plantation purpose.

11. INFRASTRUCTURE The lease area falls in Vikasnagar Tehsil of Dehradun District of Uttarakhand. The lease area is 6.0 km from Vikasnagar in SES direction. No infrastructure facility such as aerial rope way, conveyor belt, Railway, building & structures, water treatment plant, transport and water supply is present in the mine lease area.

12. DISPOSAL OF MINING MACHINERY No static machinery is deployed in the lease area. Tippers and tractors are only utilized which will be shifted to other mines of the lessee before closure of the mine.

13. SAFETY AND SECURITY The non-active sides of the working quarry will be suitable fenced and access to surface opening will be prohibited. The mine will be suitably guarded and any approach to mine will be restricted and prohibited.

PROJECT OWNER/LESSEE Page 4 SMT, KUSUMLATA W/O YESH PAL SING C/O SHIVA DREDGERS , VILLAGE- RUHALKI DAYAPUR POST –BHAGWANPUR DISTRICT-HARIDWAR, UTTARAKHAND

14. ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT PLAN

The environment management plan has been developed with a view to bring down the levels of impacts during proposed mining activity. In each of the areas of impact, measures have to be taken to reduce potentially significant adverse impacts and where these are beneficial in nature, such impacts are to be enhanced/augmented so that the overall adverse impacts are reduced to as low level as possible. Measures to be taken for each of the impact area are detailed in the following paras.

Land

Degradation of land is not a very significant adverse impact of river of riverbed mining due creation roads, mining operations, and transportation of mined material. In order to prevent the environmental degradation of leased mine area and its surroundings, the following measures shall be taken:

 No river bed minerals will be collected from 3 m from bank, especially from outer bank of the meandering river. Safe clearance should be mainly determined by the width of the river bed.  Creation of ponds and pits on the river bed shall not be allowed.  Mining damage to the flora standing on the river bank.  Operations during day time only.  No foreign material should be allowed to remain/spill in river bed and catchment area, or no pits/pockets will be allowed to be filled with such material,  Stockpiling of harvested proposed on the river bed or river bank shall be avoided. Movement of the vehicles on the road will be increased; however, non metalled road leading to proposed mining area will be sprinkled with water at regular intervals. In addition to prevent spillage by trucks/tractor trolley, over loading should be controlled along with speed limit. There will be minimum numbers of access roads to river bed, as cutting river banks should be avoided and ramps are to be maintained. Access points to the river bed are to be decided based on the following;-

 Least steepness of river bank,  Less damage to riverside vegetation and least human activity,  Haulage roads parallel to the river bank and roads connecting access (ramps) to the river bed shall be away from bank, preferably a minimum of 100 m away.  Access roads from the public roads and up to the river bank should be aligned in such a way what it would cause least environment damage. Plantation and Soil Conservation: - There is no soil over mineralized area; however the receding floods in the monsoon season deposit some clay/soil carried down by river water. It is hardly a few millimeter thick and of not much consequence. Even in the areas of no mining activity the process of deposition in one season and transportation of previously deposited material in the next season takes place along with deposition of fresh material by

PROJECT OWNER/LESSEE Page 5 SMT, KUSUMLATA W/O YESH PAL SING C/O SHIVA DREDGERS, VILLAGE- RUHALKI DAYAPUR POST –BHAGWANPUR DISTRICT-HARIDWAR, UTTARAKHAND

receding floods. Plantation activity shall be undertaken in consultation with village NawabGarhpanchayat the river banks, village roadside or Panchayat waste lands to improve the land quality, aesthetics and reduce soil erosion.

Post Mining Land-use: - As the mining lease area if part of active river course and suffer floods every monsoon season, the land degradation impact due to the excavation of balu, bajri and boulder undertaken during dry period of the year will get replenished by fresh material and there shall not be any change in land use pattern in core zone i.e. mining lease area.

In view of the above, the mining lease area would remain active river course during and post mining operation.

Water Pollution Control Measures

Surface Water: - The major source of surface water pollution due to sand mining is insignificant, however the following measures shall be undertaken to prevent water pollution.

 Utmost care will be taken to minimize spillage of mineral.  Drains and their Catchments will be constructed just beside the access roads to that the storm water gels settled before flowing to the river.  The washing of trucks and tractor trolleys in the river will be avoided. Ground Water: - There would not be any adverse effect on the ground water quality. The mineral formation does not contain any harmful element, which could percolate into the ground and pollute the ground water. Hence, no control measures are required.

However, regular monitoring of quality in the existing hand pumps/tube wells in the vicinity would be carried out both with reference to area and times intervals to study the hydrodynamics of the strata.

Air Pollution Control Measures The proposed mining operations are not anticipated to raise the concentration of the pollutants beyond prescribed limits. However, the following measures would be adopted to mitigate the SPM levels in ambient air. Dust particles generated during various mining activities when become airborne lead to increase in SPM level in the ambient air. The major source of dust generation is the transport of material by trucks and tractor trolleys. Adequate control measures shall be taken during mining operations as well as transportation of minerals. The following steps shall be adopted to prevent air pollution due to airborne dust.  Dust mask provided to the workers engaged at dust generation points like excavations, loading and unloading points.  The only air pollution sources are the road transport network of the trucks.

PROJECT OWNER/LESSEE Page 6 SMT, KUSUMLATA W/O YESH PAL SING C/O SHIVA DREDGERS, VILLAGE- RUHALKI DAYAPUR POST –BHAGWANPUR DISTRICT-HARIDWAR, UTTARAKHAND

PROJECT JUSTIFICATION REPORT For Picking of Balu, Bajri & Boulder Mine at Village- Dhakrani, Tehsil- Vikasnagar, Tehsil-Vikas Nagar of Dehradun District and Uttarakhand State cover 2.5893hectare of area

 The dust suppression measures like water spraying will be done on the road.  Utmost care will be taken to prevent spillage of proposed from the trucks.  Overloading will be prevented. The trucks/tractor trolley will be covered by tarpaulin covers. Noise Pollution Control Measures

As there will be no heavy earth moving machinery there will not be any major impact on noise level due to sand mining and other association activities a detailed noise survey has been carried out and results were cross referenced with standards and were found to be well within limits.

Blasting technique is not used for proposed lifting, hence no possibility of land vibration. It was found that the proposed mining activity will not have any significant impact on the noise environment of the region. The only impact will be due to transportation of proposed by trucks and tractor trolley. As the only impact is due to transportation of stone to the stone crushing unit and sand to the market thought village roads, the following control measures shall be taken to keep the ambient noise levels well within limits:

 Minimum use of horns and speed limit of 10 kms in the village area.  Timely maintenance of vehicles and their silencers to minimize vibration and sound.  Phasing out of old and worn out trucks.  Provision of green belts in consultation with village panchayat along the road networks.  Care will be taken to produce minimum sound during proposed mined materials loading. Biological Environment

The mining activity will have insignificant effect on the existing flora and fauna. The purpose of the project itself is to save the flora around the project area from river widening, excessive erosion and floods. It was found that the proposed mining activity will not have any significant impact on the biological environment of the region.

Socio-Economic Environment-This project will provide livelihood to the poorest section of the society. The overall impact of river bed mining of balu, bajri and boulder on the social economics of the area shall be a very positive one, as not only it will generate employment opportunities for local population at mine site but also in associated activity i.e. at stone crushing plant, for transportation of mined material, etc. It will also give a good boost to the general economy of the area. Persons of nearby villages shall be employed at mine site and local villagers are to be benefited directly or indirectly by the project.

Anticipated impacts and evaluation: - The result of the field survey conducted during preparation of feasibility report reveals that people living around the project area, gives a clear idea about the need for the project.

PROJECT OWNER/LESSEE Page 7 SMT, KUSUMLATA W/O YESH PAL SING C/O SHIVA DREDGERS, VILLAGE- RUHALKI DAYAPUR POST –BHAGWANPUR DISTRICT-HARIDWAR, UTTARAKHAND

A major portion of the houses in the study area are pucca type structures. The water source to this area is from the hand pumps and private bore-wells. Not many households have sanitation facilities in their premises and so open locations are used. The solid waste generated in the area is dumped into open land since there are no collecting agencies in the area. The awareness level regarding the proposed mining activity is very high.

The proposed mining activity is expected to provide stimulus to socio-economic activities in the region and thereby accelerate further development processes. However, there is an apprehension that the local people may get engaged in illegal activities if they are not involved in the proposed mining operation or the project is shelved or there is inordinate delay in its execution.

Environment Monitoring Plan

The proponent shall follow the standard methods for six monthly monitoring various environmental parameters i.e. Air, Water, Noise and Soil through accredited laboratory and submit the compliance report as per EC conditions. The deposition rate of mineral on river bed shall also be monitored.

Conclusion

All possible environment aspects have been adequately assessed and necessary control measures have been formulated to meet statutory requirements. Thus implementing this project will not have any appreciable negative impacts.

PROJECT OWNER/LESSEE Page 8 SMT, KUSUMLATA W/O YESH PAL SING C/O SHIVA DREDGERS, VILLAGE- RUHALKI DAYAPUR POST –BHAGWANPUR DISTRICT-HARIDWAR, UTTARAKHAND