By Ayaskant Das

A central government expert review panel has recommended environmental clearance (EC) for a Vedanta Group-owned Goa iron ore mining project. However, it has not held the corporate entity accountable for previous accusations of illegal mining in it. Records indicate that, though the mine has been active since 1941, initially as five separate blocks and later as one combined block, the approval for clearance was based on the premise that it is a new project.

The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) – an advisory panel of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change – recommended environmental clearance for Vedanta Group’s Bicholim iron ore mining project in a meeting held on 26 December 2023. A review of the EAC meeting’s minutes indicates that the recommendation was based on a key letter from the Goa government, which essentially cleared Vedanta Group of any past illegal mining allegations vis-à-vis Bicholim.

“(b) M/s Vedanta Ltd was not the erstwhile lessee of the said Block prior to auction. (c) The matter of illegal mining in the State of Goa is under investigation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT),” states the letter issued on 25 July 2023 by Goa’s Directorate of Mines & Geology.

However, the letter’s content contradicts the fact that the Supreme Court of India, in a significant ruling in October 2014, termed all mining operations underway in Goa after 22 November 2007 as illegal. The letter also fails to mention that Vedanta Group indeed held a lease for the Goa iron ore block, but it was identified by different lease numbers at that time, and not as Bicholim.

The five leaseholds, which now comprise Bicholim, had been leased out for Goa’s iron ore mining by the state’s erstwhile Portuguese government to an entity that was later acquired by a Vedanta Group subsidiary company. The Probe has the copy of an order issued by the Goa government in July 2017, amalgamating the five mining leases of the Vedanta Group subsidiary, Sesa Mining Corporation Limited.

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