Uttarakhand Panel Flags Unscientific Mining, Warns Bageshwar Faces Mounting Ecological Risks

• Slopes in Bageshwar are extremely vulnerable to landslides and rockfalls due to steep cuts and subpar mining methods, according to an expert panel.

• Stricter oversight and sustainable mining reforms are urgently needed in the district due to crop losses, drying springs, and house cracks.

• The panel found most mines lacked proper benches and safety design, with steep vertical cuts leaving the Himalayan terrain highly unstable.

A government-appointed panel has warned that unscientific mining in Uttarakhand's Bageshwar district is destabilising slopes, threatening villages and agriculture besides disrupting water sources in the fragile Himalayan region.

The "Geological Assessment and Recommendations For Sustainable Mining Practices in Bageshwar District" report, submitted to the National Green Tribunal on July 30, called for sweeping reforms in mining practices and stringent monitoring to mitigate the risks.

The assessment was conducted following rising complaints of landslides, cracks in houses, drying springs and crop losses in several villages around Bageshwar.

The tribunal had sought an expert evaluation after local residents alleged that mining in the district was being carried out without regard for environmental safeguards.

The panel, comprising experts from the Geological Survey of India, the Uttarakhand Landslide Mitigation and Management Centre, the Department of Geology and Mining and the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, examined 61 mines across Bageshwar, Kanda and Dugnakuri tehsils.

According to the report, most mines have altered natural slopes through steep vertical cuts and lack proper benches, making the terrain highly "vulnerable to landslides" and rockfalls.

The team observed cracks, ground subsidence and rockslides at multiple sites.

It noted that debris from mining was often dumped haphazardly into natural streams, choking drainage channels and aggravating waterlogging and slope failures.

Many of the sites surveyed by the panel include soapstone quarries, which account for the majority of mining activity in the district and have been repeatedly identified as causing environmental harm.

All Mining Halted 

Earlier, on January 6, the Uttarakhand High Court had suspended all mining activities in the state's Bageshwar district with immediate effect while rebuking state officials for turning a blind eye to the problem. The order followed a report on soapstone mining in the district submitted by court-appointed commissioners Mayank Joshi and Shaurin Dhulia, reported PTI.

The report underscored the emergence of extensive cracks on the walls of houses across villages in Banda area in the district and warned that unregulated soapstone mining was driving land subsidence and threatening lives.

“The report is not merely alarming but is also shocking. The report and the photographs clearly demonstrate complete lawlessness by the miners and are proof of local administration turning a blind eye to the transgression. Further, the report and the photographs, prima facie, demonstrate that further mining operations, which have already damaged dwelling houses, are likely to result in landslides and definite loss of lives,” said the order by the Bench of Chief Justice G Narender.

The report by the commissioners states that there were alarming levels of land subsidence and “soapstone mining in the region is leading to critical environmental and socio-economic issues for which the community is at the receiving end”.