Thirty years of mining has taken place in the area, but it has left no scars in Damanjodi, in Orissa?s Koraput district, where Nalco?s Panchpatamali mines are located, giving credit to Navratna Nalco’s claim of completely pollution-free operations.
The hills in the area, which is India?s major bauxite mining region with over 100 million tonnes already mined out from an extractable reserve of 310 mt, are not red, as one would expect in a mining area, but green with vegetation. Nalco operates a 16 sq km mining area and a 2.1 mt alumina refinery at Damanjodi, and its standard of operation, according to the environment and forests ministry, is a benchmark.
As one enters Nalco’s mining area, one can see how the company is aggressive on the environment front. After every patch is exhausted of bauxite, Nalco gives it a new forest cover. This is how: during digging, the entire top soil is conserved for refilling of the exhausted mine and the overburden (most commonly rock, soil and ecosystem that lies above a mine) is used for land reclamation. However, while reclaiming, only three metres of land is filled with the OB material and top soil to make a 14-metre deep trough where rain water is captured. The water within the trough gets gradually absorbed, recharging the stream waters, which Nalco uses (around 0.4 million gallons a day) to feed its refinery and also the ground water, which gets depleted in course of time . Thereafter, the hill tops, which were barren before mining, are covered with variety of medicinal and fruit trees, thus creating a new forest cover.
Nalco, according to Anil Bhat, chief general manager, CSR, has so far planted 18.9 lakh trees in the Panchpatamali mines, of which some species were even imported.
Every year a total of around two lakh trees are planted in the mining and refinery areas at Damanjodi and also at the smelting and captive power plant area at Angul, adds Bhat. But Nalco’s environment protection is not only limited to giving new forest cover. It also has to manage a highly pollutant red mud waste at its refinery and fluoride waste at its smelter in Angul. The red mud is left after the bauxite ore is crushed and ground to separate alumina. ?In fact, the red mud deposits, which have above 60% ferrous content, will gradually turn the area to an iron ore rich belt, though at a much later stage,? says executive director (production) KS Sreedhara.
However, if the locals at Damanjodi are in agreement with Nalco’s claims of non-pollution, the same cannot be said of the company’s 4,60,000 tonne smelter and 1,200 mw captive power plant at Angul, the country?s fourth-most polluted area with a pollution index of 82%. ?Last year, 50 people were detected to have fluorosis in our village and this we are sure has happened due to Nalco’s fluoride emission,? alleges Binodini Muduli, a health worker in Banda village, bordering Nalco’s smelter unit. Another villager, Jayitriata Sahoo, claims their paddy yields have halved and cattle are suffering deformities because of Nalco’s fluoride emission. Nalco, of course, hotly denies this. KK Panda, in-charge of pollution control at Nalco’s smelter, claims the cases of fluorosis are because of the endemic fluoride content in the ground water, adding that Nalco supplies fluoride-free piped water to the villages.
?Our emission levels are much lower than the permissible level of PCB,? he claims. At present, when Nalco is smelting 4,60,000 tonnes, its emission level is at 0.7 kg per tonne against a PCB permissible level of 0.8 kg per tonne,? he says, adding that when Nalco expands its facility to 5,67,000 tonnes, it will emit 0.5 kg per tonne. ?Our emission levels are on a par with European standards, with yearly emissions not exceeding 300 tonnes. There is no scientific proof that 300 tonnes of fluoride emission throughout the year has an adverse effect on the environment,? Panda argues. BB Das, deputy general manager (environment and safety) in Nalco’s captive power plant argues that there are 15 coal mines, four thermal power plants, two large iron and steel units and a number of sponge iron units in the area. ?Why don?t people charge them for creating pollution?? he asks. He argues that at a time when the environment and forest ministry has objected to all industrial and mining expansions in the area, Nalco’s capacity augmentation proposal is the only one to have got clearance. ?This has happened since it is all clean,? Das says, pointing to the captive power plant?s ash ponds, which he claims are one of the best managed ash ponds in the country. As one turns to look, the ponds gives the impression of a lake, where migratory birds can be seen frolicking.