Mining is an essential economic activity in India. India is one of the largest exporters of iron ore, chromite, bauxite, mica, and manganese, and it is ranked fifth among the mineral-producing countries in terms of production volume. The mining sector contributes to a significant percent of India’s GDP. While there has been private sector participation in mining, the government through its various public sector companies continues to be the most major participant in the domestic mining industry.
Much of India’s potential mineral resources are yet to be completely explored. Earlier, government policies and legislation had majorly focused on the stabilization of mines and minerals rather than on exploration and development. Taking into consideration the stagnation of the mineral industry, several reforms have been initiated by the Indian government allowing for better private sector participation in mineral exploration, mine development, and maintenance.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FOCUS MINERALS ?
Our country produces almost 88 minerals, which include fuel, atomic, metallic, and non-metallic minerals. India is a leading producer of several metallic minerals such as chromite, iron ore, zinc, bauxite, manganese, aluminum, and copper.
India has set a goal to switch wholly to electric vehicles by 2030. However, to achieve this goal, it needs to invest in domestic manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries. The NITI Aayog has observed that India does not have adequate reserves of some of the most essential lithium-ion components involving lithium, cobalt, and nickel. India will need to forge international partnerships and joint ventures to secure access to prominent minerals to build up its domestic battery manufacturing industry. We understand from reports that India is in the process of having conversations for partnerships with Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile for importing lithium at better rates.
WHICH REGIONS ARE THE MOST ACTIVE IN INDIA ?
India’s mining treasure trove is present in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka. Iron ore reserves are predominantly seen in Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka. Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka are prominent areas for manganese reserves. Copper reserves are present in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand. Zinc reserves are predominantly seen in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Maharashtra. Chromite ore reserves are present in Odisha, Manipur, Nagaland, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh.
WHAT IS INDIA’S CURRENT MINING CONDITION ?
Over the years, India’s mining sector, consisting of the non-fuel mineral sector, has been poached by several controversies. From violation and poor implementation of regulatory obligations about environmental protection and community rights to over-extraction and illegal sale of ores, problems have brought the sector into the limelight of policy debate.
The range of disturbance that runs in India’s mining sector is hard to overstate. Even government officials admit that the mining sector faces several obstacles, including popular “illegal mining.” Ordinarily speaking, that refers to cases where executives harvest resources they have no legal right to abuse. Official statistics indicate there were more than 82,000 instances of illegal mining in 2010 alone—an annual rate of 30 criminal acts for every legal mining operation in the country. But this report argues that an even bigger problem is the failure of key administrative mechanisms to guarantee that even legal mine operators comply with the law and uphold human rights.
In some communities visited by Human Rights Watch, farmers complained that endless streams of overloaded ore trucks passing along narrow village roads had left their crops coated in thick layers of metallic dust, damaging them and warning of economic ruin. In some areas, Human Rights Watch observed lines of heavily-laden mining trucks several kilometers long grinding along narrow, broken roads and leaving vast clouds of dust in their wake. Read our article on sustainable living here!
HOW DOES MINING IMPACT THE ENVIRONMENT IN INDIA ?
The extraction of minerals from nature often creates imbalances, which adversely affects the environment. The key environmental impacts of mining are on wildlife and fishery habitats, the water balance, local climates & the pattern of rainfall, sedimentation, the depletion of forests and the disruption of the ecology.
Surface mines produce dust from blasting operations and roads. Many coal mines release methane which is a harmful greenhouse gas. Smelter operations with ineffectual safeguards pollute the air with metals, sulphur dioxide and other pollutants.
Mining sector takes up huge quantities of water and does not reuse this water. Mining deposits sulphide containing minerals into air which gets oxidized and reacts with water to form sulphuric acid. This causes groundwater to turn poisonous over time.
Movement of rocks over a significant period of time impacts land. Mining operations can be dangerous for the health and safety of the workers. They cause respiratory problems from exposure to radiation.
An instance of environmental damage by a mining company in India is the Kudremukh Iron-ore Company Limited in the Western Ghats Mountain ranges in the southern part of India. Their operations caused damage to the hills, polluted the groundwater and affected the Kudremukh National Park. Since 1973, seven mining disasters have taken place in the country. Illegal mining and ineffectual government regulation initiate such disasters.
WILL THE STATE OF INDIA’S MINING SECTOR GET BETTER ?
As intense as some of India’s mining-related corruption scandals have been, Human Rights Watch believes that the more general the problem the more the government neutrality. In Karnataka, ineffective regulation played a prominent role in supporting criminality to penetrate the state’s mining sector. And many of the alleged human rights abuses detailed in this report result not from models of corruption or criminality but from the government’s more ordinary failure to adequately observe, let alone police, the human rights consequences of mining operations.
Many public officials openly admit that they have no idea how widespread or how severe the problems are. In effect, India’s government often leaves companies to improve themselves—a formula that has consistently proven disastrous in India and around the globe. There aren’t specific statistics to elucidate the future of mining in India but ethical mining can go a long way. Better policy changes might help this situation.
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Written by, Aamna Siddiqui
