Miners see opening as Supreme Court denotifies Trikuta sanctuary

NEW DELHI: The Vaishno Devi shrine will be able to build more facilities for pilgrims as the Supreme Court has ruled that the Trikuta hills around the temple cannot be regarded as a wildlife sanctuary, but the order may also open the gate for companies to mine manganese in the area.

The Vaishno Devi Shrine Board had approached SC saying it needed land to build facilities for the rising number of pilgrims. A bench, comprising Aftab Alam, KS Radhakrishnan and Ranjan Gogoi granted this. While the issue of mining aspect did not come up before the court, the sector may also benefit. Mining projects in the region have already received environmental clearance, but forest clearance would have been needed if the sanctuary had not been denotified. But this has now been rendered unnecessary, sources said.

The Jammu & Kashmir Minerals Development Corporation has already signed a lease with the Board to mine 12,40,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) manganese from the Chirppian hills, 3 km from the sanctuary. A 30,000-tonne-per-annum burnt magnesia plant is expected to come up at Panthal, 4.5 km away from the sanctuary. Both these projects were cleared by the state and the national wildlife boards presided over by the environment minister in 2011. Amicus curiae ADN Rao had sought court approval to de-notify the sanctuary.