Beas Conservation Reserve: Submit conservation plan for NOC, Mining Dept told

Rajmeet Singh

Chandigarh, November 8

The Forest Department has asked the Mining Department to submit a conservation plan as per laid down procedures before seeking a no-objection certificate (NOC) for mining in areas under the Beas Conservation Reserve.

The reserve — a 185-km stretch of Beas river — is located in the north-west of Punjab. “The norms do not allow deep excavation and prohibit use of heavy machinery. It is a conservation reserve area,” said a senior government official.

The issue of seeking an NOC from the Forest Department cropped up after the Vigilance Bureau started probing the case of illegal mining in Jindapur village near Bela in Chamkaur Sahib.

The Forest Department had to intervene for demarcation of the land. A joint demarcation had revealed that the mining was illegally being carried out in the forest area. After the case, the Additional Chief Secretary (Forests) wrote to the Mining Department to seek an NOC from them.

Recently, the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) directed the Mining Department to immediately stop alleged digging and excavation of rivers for sand mining activities in the shadow of ‘desilting’ of rivers.

The SEIAA had found that sand mining activities were being carried out in rivers for past two years without mandatory environment clearance.

The directions came after a five-member committee headed by the SEIAA comprising the pollution control board, two expert members of the state environment assessment committee (SEAC) and a member from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change visited the desilting sites.

Practice was discontinued earlier

The Mining Department had discontinued the practice of seeking an NOC before the Jindapur case. Now, divisional forest officers have been asked to provide details of the forest areas in their respective jurisdiction to the DCs. Senior forest official