Mineral resources are fundamental to the country's economy and these are exploited by mining. Why is mining considered an environmental hazard? Explain the remedial measures required to reduce the environmental hazard due to mining.

India’s mining sector is a crucial driver of industrial growth, contributing approximately 2.5% to the national GDP and providing essential raw materials for core sectors like energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing. However, the extraction of these resources comes with significant ecological costs, leading to a direct conflict between economic development and environmental sustainability.

Why Mining is Considered an Environmental Hazard

Mining is inherently disruptive, altering topographies and ecosystems. Its environmental hazards manifest across various ecological dimensions:

• Land Degradation and Topography Alteration:
  • Deforestation and Loss of Topsoil: Open-cast mining requires the clearing of vast forest tracts. The removal of fertile topsoil leads to desertification and loss of agricultural productivity.
  • Land Subsidence: Underground mining creates hollow cavities. Failure of these cavities leads to land subsidence, as seen extensively in the Jharia coalfields in Jharkhand.
  • Waste Accumulation: Accumulation of overburden and mine tailings degrades large tracts of adjacent land, rendering them barren.
• Water Resources Depletion and Pollution:
  • Acid Mine Drainage (AMD): Sulfide minerals exposed during mining react with air and water to form sulfuric acid, heavily polluting rivers and groundwater.
  • Heavy Metal Toxicity: Runoff from mining sites introduces heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and hexavalent chromium into water bodies (e.g., chromite mining in the Sukinda Valley, Odisha).
  • Hydrological Disruption: Deep excavation intersects the water table, necessitating continuous dewatering. This severely depletes local groundwater aquifers.
• Air Pollution and Microclimatic Changes:
  • Fugitive Emissions: Drilling, blasting, and heavy vehicular movement release immense quantities of Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 and PM 10), coal dust, and fly ash.
  • Spontaneous Combustion: Coal seams exposed to the surface often catch fire, releasing noxious gases like carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide.
• Biodiversity Loss and Habitat Fragmentation:
  • Mining in ecologically sensitive zones disrupts wildlife corridors and leads to habitat fragmentation, escalating human-wildlife conflict (e.g., elephant corridor disruptions in Odisha and Chhattisgarh).
• Human-Environment Interface Hazards:
  • Unregulated mining, such as the ‘rat-hole’ mining in Meghalaya, poses severe risks to human lives while devastating local river ecosystems (e.g., Lukha and Myntdu rivers). Furthermore, local populations suffer from chronic respiratory diseases like Silicosis and Pneumoconiosis.

Remedial Measures to Reduce Environmental Hazards

To mitigate the ecological footprint of mining, a transition from conventional extraction to 'Green Mining' is imperative.

• Technological Interventions:
  • Eco-friendly Extraction: Adoption of surface miners instead of conventional drilling and blasting minimizes dust generation and noise pollution.
  • Phytoremediation and Bio-mining: Using hyper-accumulator plants to absorb heavy metals from contaminated soils, and utilizing microorganisms to extract metals from low-grade ores, thereby reducing the need for toxic chemicals.
  • Remote Sensing and AI: Utilizing the Mining Surveillance System (MSS) via satellite imagery to detect illegal mining and monitor the expansion of environmental degradation.
• Scientific Mine Closure and Reclamation:
  • Concurrent Reclamation: Rehabilitating mined-out areas concurrently with ongoing extraction rather than waiting for the mine's lifespan to end.
  • Topsoil Preservation: Mandating the systematic scraping, storage, and reuse of topsoil for afforestation of overburden dumps.
  • Tailing Dam Management: Constructing robust, scientifically designed tailing dams to prevent structural failures and toxic spills, utilizing geo-textiles to prevent leaching.
• Water and Air Quality Management:
  • Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD): Implementing closed-loop water systems where mine water is treated and reused for dust suppression and mineral processing, ensuring zero untreated discharge into local streams.
  • Dust Suppression Mechanisms: Installation of dry fogging systems, windbreaks, and mechanized covered transport via conveyor belts to restrict fugitive dust emissions.
• Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency:
  • Utilization of Mine Waste: Promoting the use of mine overburden, slag, and fly ash as raw materials in the construction and cement industries, converting 'waste to wealth'.
  • Urban Mining: Encouraging the recycling of metals from e-waste to reduce the primary pressure on natural mineral extraction.
• Regulatory and Policy Enforcement:
  • Strict Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA): Ensuring comprehensive ecological scoping before the grant of mining leases, with stringent penalties for non-compliance.
  • Effective Utilization of DMF: Leveraging the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) under the Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY) to fund ecological restoration, afforestation, and healthcare infrastructure in mining-affected areas.

Conclusion

The National Mineral Policy 2019 rightly emphasizes the concept of "Sustainable Mining." To balance India's developmental imperatives with ecological security, the mining sector must operate within the planetary boundaries. Implementing the principle of Intergenerational Equity—ensuring that the extraction of finite resources today does not compromise the environmental and economic well-being of future generations—is central to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and 15 (Life on Land).