Gurgaon: National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered the closure of a stone mining operation in Haryana’s Mahendergarh district after finding that the leaseholder accessed the mine through an unauthorised road passing through Aravali Plantation without mandatory forest clearance. The tribunal also held that the company violated multiple conditions of its environmental clearance (EC).The July 22 order, released on Monday, was passed by a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and expert member Afroz Ahmad while disposing of an application filed by Lal Chand against M/s Maa Santoshi Khanij Udhyog. The company had received environmental clearance on Oct 20, 2020, for stone mining at Musnota village in Narnaul tehsil of Mahendergarh.The petitioner alleged that the company had carved out an access road through Aravali Plantation, allowing heavily loaded trucks to pass through the protected area daily and damaging the plantation.The tribunal relied on three reports submitted by a joint committee comprising representatives of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Union environment ministry’s regional office, Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) and the Mahendergarh district administration. In its reports following site inspections and examination of official records, the committee consistently indicated that the access road passed through land that formed part of Aravali Plantation.Referring to the committee’s findings, the tribunal observed that “the ‘kacha rasta’ approaching the mines of the Respondent No. 5 (the company) is through khasra numbers 258 and 270 which is part of the Aravali Plantation.”The tribunal noted that the company had not obtained forest clearance for the road despite it being a condition of its environmental clearance. It also recorded findings of illegal mining and other environmental violations as highlighted in the joint committee’s reports.The committee found that the company failed to maintain the mandatory 7.5-metre safety zone along the lease boundary, did not undertake plantation in the safety zone, had inadequate dust suppression measures, failed to install ambient air quality monitoring stations and piezometers, and carried out excavation outside the lease area.The order records that HSPCB imposed an environmental compensation of Rs 22.6 lakh on the company in Nov 2024 for violating EC conditions. Separately, the mining department raised a demand of Rs 42.28 lakh towards penalty, royalty and the value of illegally excavated mineral after a joint survey found mining outside the lease boundary over 15,648 sq ft involving 24,812.5 metric tonnes of mineral.The company argued that the road existed before the mining lease was transferred and referred to pending civil proceedings. However, the tribunal noted that the joint committee relied on reports of the tehsildar, range forest officer and revenue records, which showed that the kacha road through khasra numbers 258 and 270 was not recorded in revenue records and formed part of Aravali Plantation. The committee also found that an alternative paved public road was available through another khasra.Relying extensively on Supreme Court’s 2004 judgement in M.C. Mehta vs Union of India, the tribunal reiterated that plantations raised under the Aravali project are to be treated as forest land and cannot be opened for mining.Quoting the apex court, the tribunal observed: “Neither the State nor the leaseholders can be permitted to turn round and now take a stand that the areas covered under the Aravali project are not forest.” It also reproduced Supreme Court’s direction that mining cannot be permitted in areas covered under plantation under the Aravali project. “The grant of leases for mining operation over such an area would be wholly arbitrary, unreasonable and illogical,” Supreme Court had noted.Holding that the company accessed the mine through an unauthorised road in Aravali Plantation without forest clearance and violated several environmental clearance conditions, the tribunal directed closure of the mining operation.The Aravali Plantation project, implemented between 1990 and 1997 with European Union funding of up to Rs 175 crore, represented one of Haryana’s largest ecological interventions to protect the ancient hills. Spread across about 82,000 acres in six districts, it aimed to regenerate barren hills and conserve soil and water.In its 2004 judgement, Supreme Court noted, “Mining activity may completely be prohibited in areas where plantations have been undertaken with foreign assistance/funding. Mining leases already granted/approved in all such areas may be cancelled.”The order comes amid increased regulatory scrutiny of mining activities in Mahendergarh’s Aravali belt, where TOI had earlier reported on illegal mining, mining outside lease boundaries, forest land violations and regulatory action against stone quarries.
