NGT seeks report on morrum extraction in Jharsuguda

Bhubaneswar: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the district collector of Odisha’s Jharsuguda to file an action taken report (ATR) on the joint inquiry report submitted by the fact-finding committee confirming illegal extraction of ‘morrum’ by a private company.

According to sources, the east zone bench of NGT in Kolkata issued the direction while hearing a petition in which a resident of Brajarajnagar had alleged that illegal extraction of morrum (weathered laterite) is being carried out in revenue forest land by felling trees in Jharsuguda tehsil area.

The bench of B Amit Sthalekar (judicial member) and Arun Kumar Verma (expert member) said that the counsel appearing (in virtual mode) on behalf of the petitioner, stated that in spite of the findings of the inspection committee constituted by this tribunal, no action has been taken till date by the state respondents to compute penalty and environmental compensation and lodging of FIR against the violators.

The bench, therefore, directed the district collector of Jharsuguda to file his action taken report on affidavit within three weeks.

Divisional forest officer of Jharsuguda Manu Ashok Bhat had submitted an affidavit along with the joint inspection report of the fact-finding committee after inspection of the site in March.

The report confirmed excavation at a plot up to five metres deep and extraction 56,100 cubic metres of morrum by the private construction company. The findings were supported by the report of the revenue inspector and a drone survey.

The morrum was extracted by the company without obtaining environmental clearance from the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and valid consent to establish and consent to operate from the state pollution control board, the report said.

The committee recommended direction to the company to develop a plantation on the plot for damaging the natural vegetation without the permission of the competent authority.

The committee also recommended direction to obtain required permissions from the authority concerned for excavation of morrum.

The joint inspection committee included a senior scientist from the regional office of SPCB (Jharsuguda), assistant conservator of forests (Jharsuguda) and additional district magistrate-general (Jharsuguda), the sources added.