New Delhi: An investigation by The Reporters’ Collective (TRC) has revealed that the Uttarakhand government enjoys impunity in flouting environmental norms as it pushes for increased mining in the state’s Gaula river.The Gaula is already dying due to excessive mining and deforestation, TRC’s report says, but this has not deterred the Union government from extending Uttarakhand’s permission to mine from the river.The Union environment ministry is also undeterred by Uttarakhand’s unwillingness to comply with rules meant to protect the environment. TRC reports that it has also relaxed existing environmental regulations, allowing the state government to further degrade the Gaula.Flowing through eastern Uttarakhand, the Gaula originates in the state’s Nainital district and eventually joins the Ramganga river in Uttar Pradesh, which in turn joins the Ganges further downstream.It passes through Uttarakhand’s Haldwani city as it enters the plains and is an important source of water for the city.During its course, the Gaula collects stones and minerals from upstream and deposits them in the plains. These also regulate the Gaula’s flow, and unfettered mining risks allowing the river to take unprecedented paths downstream during the monsoon and damage farmland as well as bridges, TRC reported.Flooding from rivers is a major cause of destruction during the monsoon in India.Also Read: Redevelopment Projects at Badrinath Must Respect its Unique Natural and Spiritual HeritageA statutory body in the Uttarakhand government, known as the Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation (UFDC), was granted permission by the Union government to mine the Gaula for 10 years starting in January 2013, TRC’s report said.The state government attempted to renew this permission starting in April 2022, and obtained a temporary extension from the Union environment ministry in January this year.But TRC reports that the ministry granted this temporary extension without knowing the full extent of the state government’s compliance with forest conservation rules – as the latter submitted only an incomplete compliance report – even though it should take this information into consideration as per regulations.In fact, even with the available information, the ministry noted that Uttarakhand violated forestry conditions by allowing construction works in areas marked for compensatory afforestation.One month later, the Uttarakhand government obtained a permanent extension of its permission to mine the Gaula from the Union ministry, although by only half its requested period of 10 years, owing to its poor compliance with conditions imposed on it from a previous approval, according to TRC‘s report.The Union ministry also granted permission to Uttarakhand to mine the Gaula through June this year, relaxing its own guidelines prohibiting the mining of rivers during the monsoon in order to allow them to recover from the effects of mining.“There is no use of forest conservation and environment protection laws and policy if those going against them are allowed to exploit resources and are given relaxations to do that,” environmental lawyer Rahul Choudhary told TRC.He also said that violating compliance conditions under forest conservation laws can amount to violating the law itself. “What is the purpose of [the] law if it’s openly flouted?”Also read: Uncontrolled Construction, Ignored Warnings: How Joshimath SankPushkar Singh Dhami, Uttarakhand’s chief minister, announced the renewal of the state’s mining permission (which was also granted in relation to three other rivers) in a Facebook post, where he thanked the Union environment minister and attributed this success to the “double-engine government”.He used the term double-engine government to refer to the Union and Uttarakhand governments being ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.Pushkar Singh Dhami. Photo: PTITRC notes in its report that the Union government’s actions were an effort to “help the state government of the same colour leapfrog over regulations and multiple court orders meant to safeguard rivers and livelihoods, and squeeze more money out of the river.”The Uttarakhand government obtained its five-year mining extension just days after Dhami met Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav in New Delhi.The state government has said that the extension will create profits of up to Rs 50 crore, which will cause the prices of construction material to go down and provide employment to the state’s residents.This is not the first time that the sidestepping of environmental safeguards has put Uttarakhand’s population at risk. Land subsidence in the state’s Joshimath town early this year caused hundreds of buildings to develop cracks that led several families to become homeless.Experts as well as the town’s residents have alleged that successive governments’ failure to heed to warnings relating to heavy construction, including by building a hydro-power tunnel and a highway to facilitate religious tourism, are partially responsible for the sinking of Joshimath.
