National Mineral Policy 2006 - Department of Mines

higher level. The basic approach is that (i) the miners can and should enrich rather thandeplete biodiversity as a corollary to their intervention in the ecology of their area of activity;and (ii) mining can and should contribute to the economic, social, and cultural well-being ofindigenous host populations and local communities, particularly by creating stakeholderinterest in mining operations for the project affected persons (PAPs). This Committee wouldrecommend that the Ministry of Mines and MOEF should jointly set up a working group toprepare a SDF specially tailored to the context of India’s mining environment, taking fullyinto account the work done and being done in ICMM and IUCN. The Indian SDF comprisingof principles, reporting initiatives, and good practice guidelines unique to the three sectors inIndian mining, i.e. SME, captive, and large stand alone, can then be made applicable tomining operations in India and a separate structure set up to ensure adherence to suchframework, drawing from both IBM and the field formations of MOEF.3.12 Setting up a special working group and drawing up a suitable SDF appropriate to theIndian situation as proposed above will naturally be a time-consuming affair and can only beconceived as a long-term solution. The group will have to take into consideration not only theobligations enjoined on miners by the Samatha judgment (see paragraph 1.34) in respect ofthe facilities to be provided to the tribals and the judgement dated 26 September 2005 in T.N. Godavarman Thirumulkpad vs. Union of India and others (Writ Petition (C) No. 202 of1995) in the matters of afforestation and environment, but also devise ways in which theobligations cast by the ten principles, which go somewhat further than the legal obligationsflowing from the two judgements, can be built into the SDF. In the meanwhile, it is alsonecessary to consider whether certain short-term measures that can be pointers towards theeventual SDF, especially in respect of Scheduled areas where the PAPs are local tribalpopulations, can be thought of, keeping in mind all the time the legal obligations imposed bythe Hon’ble Supreme Court. At the outset, we may look at the existing Relief andRehabilitation (R&R) packages prepared by some of the states and the work actually done onthe ground suo moto by Indian mining companies in the area of environment managementand rehabilitation. Taking up the former first, two of the most advanced packages for PAPsare those prepared in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.72