CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Odisha government to cough up an interim compensation of Rs 25 crore for the damage caused to environment owing to illegal mining in the Dankari hill forest area under Dharmasala tehsil in Jajpur district that had led to spread of diseases.NGT’s principal bench, New Delhi, issued the direction on a petition seeking a direction to shut down illegal mining activities involving black stone quarry on forest land as it was posing a threat to the surrounding human population.The tribunal had shut hearing on the petition and reserved the judgment for January 4. The verdict which was released and communicated to the Odisha government yesterday/on Thursday said: “The state and the statutory authorities must anticipate, prevent and attack the causes of environmental degradation and are accountable for inaction as well as collusion. Thus, the state cannot avoid its responsibility for the damage caused to the environment”.“Accordingly, we hold the state to be liable to deposit an interim compensation of Rs 25 crore which may be deposited with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) within one month, pending final assessment on receipt of report of the Committee being hereby constituted”, the NGT bench said in its judgment, the full text of which is available with TOI.The bench comprised Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel (chairman), Justice SP Wangdi (judicial member), Justice K Ramakrishnan (judicial member) and Nagin Nanda (expert member).“We constitute a joint committee of representatives of CPCB, Indian School of Mines Dhanbad, Forest Research Institute, Dehradun and chairman, State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) to make an assessment of the amount of illegally mined material, cost of damage to environment, net present value of ecological services foregone as well as cost of restoration of the environment and exemplary damages. Logistic support will be provided to the committee by the SPCB. The nodal agency will be SIEAA for coordination and compliance. Final amount may be determined on the receipt of the report,” the tribunal said in its order, while fixing May 6 for consideration on the matter.The tribunal gave liberty to the state government to recover the interim compensation amount from the erring officers and the illegal miners/stone crushers and utilize it for restoration of environment and for welfare of mine workers and local population affected by diseases due to illegal mining.

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