Surkha (N) Lignite Mines, GMDC Ltd -Bhavnagar Environment Clearance by Ministry of Environment & Forest Compliance Report October 2013-March 2014 Environmental Clearance Letter No.J-11015/234/2006-IA II (M), Dt.7/05/2007 (A) Specific Conditions S. Conditions Present Status No. 01 Nonmineralized /areas of uneconomical Complied reserves of 1018 Ha. (Block-C) shall be surrendered before mining. Mining shall be Land already Surrendered. Now final lease area is 3672 carried out in the revised lease area of 3672 ha Ha instead of 4690 Ha. only. 02 Mining shall be carried out as per statuette at a Complied. safe distance from the seasonal stream/nallah flowing within lease boundary. Safe distance is thoroughly maintained in between seasonal Nallah & Mine working. 03 Top Soil shall be stacked properly with proper Complied. slope and will be used for reclamation and development of greenbelt. Top soil is stacked separately in 9 Ha area with proper slope. This has already been used for reclamation of backfilled and OB dump area for plantation and for green belt development in mine lease area. 04 OB shall be stacked at 4 external dumpsites Complied. within ML area. OB dumps shall be a maximum height of 30m only and consist of Presently there exist three External dumps within the three benches of 10m each. The Ultimate slope lease area. Slopes are maintained at 270. of dump shall not exceed 28º. The OB dumps The dump wise details for OB are as follows. shall be vegetatively reclaimed. Monitoring Sr. No. Dump Height (m) and management of reclaimed dumpsite should continue until the vegetation becomes self 1 W I 15 sustaining. Compliance status should be 2 W II 50 submitted to the MOEF on yearly basis. 3 W III 45 As there is huge shortage of acquired land in the allotted lease area, therefore height of W II & WIII Dumps has been maintained as 50 m & 45m as indicated in the enhanced Mine Plan. Plantation on dumps has been started from financial year 2011-12. Grass seeds of Karad (Dichanthium annulatum) have been sown along with the saplings of Bougainvillea Sp., Nerium indicum, Annona squamosa, Pongamia pinnata, Holoptelea integrifolia, Azadirachta indica, Ficus religiosa etc on dumps. 2.49 Ha of slope area of W III OB Dump has been covered under the Geotextile Coir mats for Reclamation. 05 Catch drains and Siltation ponds of appropriate Complied. size should be constructed to arrest silt and sediments flows from soil &, OB dumps. At the mine pit and at the toe of all the dumps Collected water should be utilized for watering catch/Garland drains are constructed along with a mine area, roads, green belt development etc. Siltation Pond. The drains should be regularly de-silted and Garland Drains size: maintained properly. S. Location Length Depth Garland drains (size, gradient & length) and No (km) (m) sump capacity should be designed keeping 1 NW drain 1.3 2.0 50% safety margin over and above the peak 2 SW drain 1.2 2.0 sudden rainfall and maximum discharge in the area adjoining the mine pit. Sump capacity should also provide adequate retention period 850 m length of garland drain on north side of pit has to allow proper settling of silt material. been constructed in last year Monsoon. De-silting of garland drains/Siltation Pond is done periodically. Accumulated water is kept in sump and used for dust suppression and greenbelt development in ML area. The accumulated water is analyzed monthly for quality purpose. 06 Dimension of the retaining wall at the toe of Presently we are using geo coir mats in the OB dump the dumps and OB benches within the mine to slopes to check the run-off and soil erosion. Grass seeds check run off and Siltation should be based on have been sown and the result is also fruitful to prevent the rainfall data. soil erosion. 07 Mining operation shall not involve mineral Complied processing. At present no mineral processing is involved. However, Corporation is planning to install pyrite removal plant for mined out lignite in ML area based on dry beneficiation technology to reduce the Sulphur content from lignite. This will reduce the Sulphur dioxide emission at user end. EC has been modified from MoEF, for the same vide Ref: No. J-(1015/234/2006-IA.II(M); Dtd: 18.May.2012 and Consent to Establish has also been granted by GPCB vide Ref:CTE-50932 Dtd:28.12.12 08 Mining shall not involve drilling & blasting Complied. operation. No drilling & blasting is involved in the mining operations. At present, some of the hard strata is encountered which will require blasting and the same is incorporated in revised mine plan for capacity expansion from 3.0 MTPA to 5.0 MTPA. TOR has been granted by MoEF for the same. Public Hearing has been conducted on 12.07.2013. Final EIA Report has been submitted to MoEF. 09 High efficiency water sprinkling system should Complied. be provided to check fugitive emission from haulage roads, transfer points. 20 KL capacity water tankers, equipped with pressurized sprinkling arrangement, are working round the clock to check fugitive emissions from all potential fugitive emission source including haul road and transfer points. 10 The total area brought under afforestation at Under Progress. the end of mine life shall include reclaimed external OB dumps , reclaimed quarry area, Plantation has been started from the year 2008 in progressive green belt development (60Ha) consultation with local Forest department. Till date including plantation along ML boundary, roads plantation drive is in full swing. Around 70.275 Ha area etc. planting native species in consultation with has been covered till March’14, which includes 42.608 local DFO. Ha of land area and 27.667 Ha of reclaimed Dumps, by The density of trees should be around 2000 planting native plant species like Azadirachta indica, plants/Ha. Delonix regia, Annona squamosa, Pongamia pinnata, Holoptelea integrifolia, Senna surattensis, etc under Afforestation activity like greenbelt development, reclamation of external OB dumps in ML area. Plant density of 2000/ha is maintained thoroughly. Plantation Details are attached as Annexure I. 11 Backfilling shall begin from the 4th year of Under progress. mining operations. A Progressive Mine Closure Plan shall be implemented from the GMDC Ltd. has started overburden removal work from 4th year of mining operation and OB generated 5/4/2008 and lignite loading from 14/12/2008. shall backfilled. Plantation shall be developed Backfilling in the area about 105.32 Ha. has been done. over the backfilled area. The backfilled area shall be reclaimed and planted after achieving sufficient level w.r.t ground partly with tree species, and majority shall be developed as agriculture land and pasture in lieu of Gauchar land acquired. 12 The project authorities shall provide land/areas Under progress. for grazing, if required in the reclaimed land in consultation with local villagers. 2 Ha of Gauchar land has been developed on OB Dumps in 2013. The Gauchar land shall be developed on backfilled area and the land shall be hand over to the district authorities as per existing regulation. 13 No groundwater shall be used for mining Complied. operations. Prior approval of the competent No ground water is being used for Mining activity. authority such as SGWB/CGWA shall be obtained for using groundwater for the project. Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board connection has been taken to meet Drinking water requirement of the project. About 23 KL/Day of water is used in average for drinking and domestic purpose. 14 Regular monitoring of groundwater level and Complied. water quality should be carried out by establishing a network of existing wells. The Regular third party monitoring of mine seepage and monitoring of water level & quality of water stored water is carried out by: should be done during May, August November 1. Schedule I Auditors recognized by Gujarat Pollution and January months and data collected should Control Board (GPCB). be sent to MOEF/GPCB. 2. Laboratory recognized by MoEF/GPCB. Monthly ground water levels of wells of surrounding villages are also monitored departmentally. GW monitoring data from Oct 2013-March 2014 is enclosed as Annexure II. 15 The company shall put up artificial Complied. groundwater recharge measures for augmentation of groundwater resource. The Presently no difficulty is observed in terms of ground project authorities should meet Water water depletion due to increased rainfall in recent years. requirement of nearby villages in case the Further, to increase the recharge capacity of the area, villages well go dry due to dewatering of mine. deepening of ponds and check dams work has already completed in Thordi and Malpar villages. GMDC has planned more such works in and around villages to increase the water recharging capacity in this area. Details of artificial ground water recharge structures are enclosed as Annexure III. 16 Digital processing of the entire lease area using Complied remote sensing technique should be done regularly once in 3 years for monitoring land Digital Processing has been done by “Bhaskaracharya use pattern and report submitted to MOEF and Institute for Space Applications & Geo-Informatics, Regional office Bhopal. Gandhinagar (Gujarat). Land use pattern Report enclosed in Annexure VI. 17 Besides carrying out regular periodic health Complied. check up of the workers , 10 % of the workers identified from workforce engaged in active Regular Medical check-up of all employees is being mining operation shall be subjected to heath done as per DGMS norms. check up for occupational diseases and hearing All employees of GMDC, Bhavnagar have undergone impairment, if any, through an agency such as check up by NIMH Nagpur for all the occupational NIOH, Ahmedabad within a period of one year diseases.