Volume 19 . June & December 2018 . No. 1 ISSN 0972-2173 RNI Regd. No: ORIENG/2000/2296 Vol. 19 • June & December 2018 • No. 1 EDITORIAL BOARD EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEMBERS (2017-2019 term) EDITOR President Dr. B. M. Faruque Dr Shailendra Kumar Tamotia Former Director, GSI Vice-Presidents Zahir Land, Tinikonia Bagicha Mr Ghanashyama Khuntia Cuttack – 753 001 Mr Girija Prasad Mohapatra General Secretary MEMBERS Mr Alok Bihari Panigrahi Jt. Secretaries Dr V. P. Upadhyay Mr Trilochan Mohanta Advisor Mr Shubhransu Mishra Government of India Treasurer Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Mr Jyotiranjan Patnaik North Eastern Regional Office, Members Law-U-Sib, Lumbatngen, Dr Surendra Kumar Sarangi Shillong - 793021 Mr Sujit Kumar Mohanty Mr Rabindra Nath Patra Mr G. C. Das Mrs Nirupama Das Former Director, GSI Mr Rajib Lochan Mohanty Journalist Colony Dr Budruddin M Faruque Madhusudan Nagar Mr Jaya Kumar Hota Tulsipur, Cuttack – 751 008 Mr Nalini Ranjan Patnaik Mr Ardhendu Mohapatra Mr Rabi Narayan Sahu Mr Guru Charan Das Former Dy. Director of Mines Dr Danda Srinivas Rao Hotel Bombay Inn, Mr Sudhakara Adhikaree Cuttack – 753003 Dr Umesh Chandra Jena Dr Subash Chandra Mahala Mr T Mohanta Dr Shreerup Goswami Former Joint Director Geology Mr Nihar Ranjan Sahoo 301, Divyajyoti Plaza Mr Dillip Kumar Mohanty Nuagaon Square, Shyampur Mr Harkesh Meena P.O. Ghatikia, Mr Sanjeev Das Bhubaneswar-751015 Mr Manikanta Naik Mr Sanjay Kumar Pattnaik Mr Bhavani Shankar Pani Mr Sujay Bose Publication of the Society of Geoscientists and Allied Technologists Complementary for Members of the Society The statements made or views expressed in articles in this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinion of SGAT SGAT Bulletin Vol. 19 June & December 2018 No. 1 CONTENTS Pages Editor’s Column Coastal Zone Management In Eastern India P Chakrabarti 1-14 Phytomining of Low Grade Ore G N Pujari 15-22 Urban Geology of Bhubaneswar S D Mohanty 23-36 P C Dash Management of Grade Control in Uti Open-Pit Gold Mine, P Sangurmath 37-49 Hutti-Maski Greenstone Belt, Karnataka, India Proceedings of the Brain Storming Session on Surface and 50-53 Ground Water Resources of Odisha : Status, Policy and Strategy SGAT News 54-60 News About Members 61-68 EDITOR’S COLUMN In this volume two papers, one on the coastal zone management and the other on urban geology of Bhubaneswar, have found place when there have been several incidences of natural calamity, which are caused due to global warming and of course anthropogenic factors. The global warming and related changes in the climate pattern have been felt strongly during the last decade with the Chennai floods in Dec 2015, coastal erosion near Swargadwar, Puri in August 2016, and Kerala deluge of August 2018. The Government of India's laws for environmental protection of the coastal area under the Environment (Protection) Act, has been in existence since 1986 followed by the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) by the Government of India in 1991. The CRZ Notification does not permit construction along the coastal stretches of seas, bays, estuaries, creeks, rivers and backwaters which are influenced by tidal action (in the landward side) up to 500 m from the high tide line (HTL) and also imposes several restrictions on setting up and expansion of industries. There were varying responses about the restrictions, especially from the tourism sector as well as counter reactions from environmentalist and earth scientists. The suggestion made by the author is significant. Geo-environmental Mapping is expected to facilitate systematic monitoring of changing dynamics of the terrain. But at the same time, it is imperative to work on corrective measures to check sea level rise. Beaches are the most unstable land forms and beach erosion is part of the coastal processes. It has been happening through all the times. The conflict arises when it is confronted with developmental programmes. When beach nourishment is done it is seen that the size of the sand introduced in the sediment-starved beach matches the existing texture of the sand grains. If not, the hydrodynamics of the beach gets disturbed. If the change in the size of the sand grain can change the ecological balance, how can one imagine hard engineering structures to tame the mighty Poseidon’s arena? In this respect the approach of the Water Resources Secretary to Government of Odisha to check the erosion in Puri through natural process and avoid constructing any structure on the beach seems a wise approach. The other paper on urban geology of Bhubaneswar has also raised very significant observations on current issues. Housing schemes near Koradkanta and Kesara are located on palaeo-channel and partly on the agricultural land. The possibility of future revival of the channel is a potential threat to the life and properties of the settlement, besides loss of some agricultural land. We must pay heed to the warning bells that have been sounded through the water logging in Nayapalli area, due to heavy rainfall on 30 June 2018. The water logging was caused due to indiscriminate mushrooming of concrete jungle, ignoring the geomorphological features and drainage needs of the surface run-off. However, with greeneries on the western highland, a major source of water on the east and sandstone plateau in the middle, Bhubaneswar has all the necessary parameters of a green city, provided a geoscientific wisdom prevails. We cannot agree more with the author that urban agglomeration in the western part of the upland is desirable, with a cautious planning though to keep off the drainage even remotely connected, rather than encouraging settlement in the flood plains on the eastern fringe of the city, at the cost of valuable agricultural land, besides consequential water logging. Let these ideas reach the ground level and not remain confined to the pages of geology books and freeze in the library. Dr. B. M. Faruque Editor SGAT Bulletin Vol. 19, No. 1, June & December 2018 pp 1 - 14 COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT IN EASTERN INDIA Parthasarathi Chakrabarti Chief Scientist (Retd.) Department of Science and Technology, Government of West Bengal & Former Geologist, Geological Survey of India ABSTRACT The coastal tract, in the eastern part of India covering West Bengal and Odisha, is characterized by the presence of four (4) coastal environs, viz. Hooghly Estuary, Balasore-Contai Coastal plain, Baitarani- Brahmani-Mahanadi Compound Delta and Chilika Lagoon respectively. The coastal zone management aims to maintain rational balance between the natural eco-system/ biodiversity and impact of anthropogenic interventions in the coastal environment. Therefore, a good knowledge about the biophysical processes and anthropic influences present in the coastal belt is essential for identifying the resulting effects of the key aspects in different sectors of the coast line. In this respect, the ‘Geo-environmental Mapping’ supported with ‘Spatial Information Technology’ plays facilitator role to unravel the impact of anthropic developments on bio-physical environment through space and time identifying the factual and functional parameters. frame guidelines for maintaining judicious balance between environment and ‘human capital and mobility’ through technological adjustment and social adaptations. On the subject matter, an elaborate discussion is made in this paper with examples of case histories. Key words: Coastal zone management, Geo-environmental mapping, Spatial Information Technology. INTRODUCTION In response to that, a good understanding Coastal zone being the interface between land between ever changeable landform features and and sea is the most dynamic zone and constantly related land use/ land cover (i.e. soil-water- shaped by varied interactions of marine (both vegetation interrelationships) is very essential to tides and waves), fluvial and aeolian processes. maintain the natural eco-system, to the extent The geomorphic set up of the coastal stretch possible, of the coastal zone as well as marine largely depends on the interplay between clastic environments, especially when the nature’s own sediments introduced from one direction by the built system is largely modified by multifarious rivers of variable magnitude and the strength of anthropogenic activities starting from the wave/ tide energy (according to the controlling fluvial discharge, reclamation of bathymetric configuration/ geological coastal low lands and wet lands, destruction of characteristics of the Continental Self zone) mangrove forests, coral reefs etc. and discharge which acts in opposite direction. On the other of pollutants. hand, the intertidal flats and wet lands are vital for breeding, nursery and feeding areas for the Such change detection studies require majority of marine species. continuous monitoring of the coastal landform features and the land use/ land cover patterns as well as ocean surface for conservation and 0972-2173/2018-19-1 © SGAT, BHUBANESWAR management of coastal environment including In the estuarine part of the Gangetic delta, rivers mangrove and coral reefs. In this respect, use of present are formerly distributaries of the Ganga geo-spatial data provides more subject specific itself. The network is an admixture of ‘re- updated information to the user in a cost joining’ and ‘single’ types (Coleman, 1982). The effective manner than the traditional approaches. main distributary channels/ rivers from west to India is one among the few countries which is east are Gabtala river (Hooghly channel), the effectively using satellite remote sensing Muriganga river (Bartala river) and the technology for improving the understanding on Saptamukhi, Thakuran and Matla rivers which key aspects of mangrove and coral reefs, two are essentially tidal channels. All of them important eco-sensitive zones of the coastal increase their width exponentially as they environment. approach the Bay of Bengal. Between these distributaries an anastomosing type of drainage Coastal Environments pattern is prevailing as exemplified by a number In eastern India, the coastal belt along the states of longitudinal and transverse tidal creeks of West Bengal and Odisha is marked by the segmenting the islands into small units.