In 1934 when Mahatma Gandhi visited Sandur, Bellary, he was so enamoured by its beauty that he told the world, ?See Sandur in September?. The iron ore rich belt was then known for its lush green natural beauty. But now, people who visit Sandur taluk are welcomed by a barren land, hit hard by illegal mining, and a substandard quality of air and water that has created thousands of asthma patients.

Bellary, Sandur and Hospet (known as BSH) are regions known as the iron ore belt of India with four major mining blocks in Ramgad, Swamimalai, Donimalai and North East.

This was a prosperous agriculture belt, before it witnessed the mining boom just about a decade ago. The fate of BSH started to change when iron ore prices started to climb in 2003 from R500 to R4,000-5,000 per tonne. This resulted in a mining boom, which threw the ecological balance out of gear.

Says TM Shivakumar, a social activist and an advocate who practices in Sandur Court, ?The land in this region was highly fertile. Farmers used to get up to 40 quintal of jowar per acre earlier, but now the yielding capacity has declined to 20 quintal.?

The iron ore mined and stocked in surrounding hills gets washed away during the rains, with the resultant slush finding its way into the agricultural fields located in the foot hills. Several thousands of farmers had left the fields as they could not carry out agricultural operations on account of this issue,? Shivakumar told FE.

?How can the government keep quite even after knowing that the forest cover in the hills is disappearing fast? The forest cover extended up to 3,000 feet above sea level. Summits of several hills have been damaged by extensive excavation, with the mining companies felling several thousands of trees? Shivakumar added.

Tapal Ganesh of Tumti Iron Ore told FE that the government, and forest department in particular, should take responsibility for the current situation. The miners were given licenses according to the Forest Act, 1980, which has several guidelines on how to preserve the environment. The lease has been given to each miner with a ceiling on annual mining. Ganesh said that when mining land was allotted to the miners, it was with the condition that they should buy equivalent stretch of revenue land from the government and hand it over to the forest department to carry out afforestation projects. The mining company should also pay R7 lakh per hectare to the forest department for development greenery in these areas.

Mining has been allowed in approximately 10,000 hectares in Karnataka and miners had deposited several thousand crores with the forest department for implementing afforestation. ?If the forest department had done their duty properly, the damage could have been checked to a large extent,? Ganesh added.

In addition to the damage to the green cover, red dust from lorries transporting iron ore has also polluted the entire region. The houses and agricultural fields on the side of roads are all covered by red dust. The sides of roads passing through Bellary, Toranagal, Sandur and Hospet are highly polluted with red dust. The Narihalla river passing through this region has also been polluted to a large extent. This poses great health hazards.

Several social activists blame the state pollution control board and has termed it as an inactive agency. For instance, a government-owned mining company carrying out mining in Donimalai hill has diverted the rain water with a small check dam so that mining operations are not affected. But the dam broke a few years ago and water gushed into more than 400 acres of land in the foothills, damaging maize crops.

One of the affected farmers Manjunath Gowda, who is also an advocate, had filed a writ petition in this connection in the Karnataka High Court, which directed the state pollution control board to inspect the situation. But the board officials never turned up, Gowda said.

Pollution due to improper handling of iron ore and CO2 emissions from the iron and steel factories have also been causing health hazards. Aldalli Basavaraj, president of Raithara Boo Horata Samithi, an outfit fighting for farmers in Vaddu village, Bellary, said several thousands of people in the area are suffering from asthma, skin allergies and kidney failure. People in villages like Vaddu, Bassapuram, Thalur, Toranagalu, Kurreguppa, Bannatti, Sultanpuram, Pedha Anthapuram, Chikka Anthapuram and Kodalu are highly affected,? he said.

SR Hiremath, founder of Samaj Parivartana Samudaya, the non-governmental organisation (NGO), which got the Supreme Court to suspend mining operations in Bellary on July 29, said the ecological damage has been done in the neighbouring districts of Tumkur and Chitradurga, too. The SC appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has started assessing the impact of mining in these two districts too.