Common man's perception

The common man perceived illegal mining as willful action by the mining companies to extract ore beyond their approved quantity and beyond the lease area allotted to them. A part of this increased extraction was diverted to the parallel black market which was not accounted for.

A nexus between the mining officials at the field level, officials of forest and revenue department and some company officials were involved in those activities. These activities were going on in the knowledge of the government with some political leaders of the Ruling Party being the beneficiary from such activities.

Situation on the ground

Though common men viewed illegal mining as something new which has just happened over last 1-2 years, the ground reality suggested that it has been going on for a long time. Only the steel boom that was observed during the last decade accelerated those activities.

Higher value of minerals in the international market compared to the previous years encouraged the vested interests, dishonest mineral traders and some company officials to resort to illegal mining, sale, export of minerals.

Some major areas were identified as contributing to the illegal mining in the states. Those included allowing deemed extension to the mining lease (ML) holders to operate in the non-forest areas, absence of proper verification of the sources of procurement of raw- materials at the ports and the railway sidings, mining without the approved mining plan, mining without the statutory forest and environment clearances, weakness in the mineral administration and theft of minerals among others.


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