The illegal mining industry spreads over several Indian states, including Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Rajasthan. The range of products mined includes coal, iron ore, bauxite, limestone, granite, river-bed stones, chromites, dolomite and even uranium. In fact, Karnataka is comparatively young and small player in this illegal mining business.

Former Supreme Court Judge Hegde’s report covers only one of the country’s illegal iron ore mines run by the Karnataka BJP strongmen and ministers, Reddy brothers, allegedly with the blessings of Chief Minister Yeddyurappa. Incidentally, the Reddy brothers are also accused of operating illegal ore mines in Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh, bordering Karnataka. The Lokayukta’s report does not dwell much on the alleged illegal ore mining by the Reddy brothers for reasons not quite explained.

Yeddyurappa and his BJP government are being pilloried on charges of corruption by the Press, the Lokayukta, the state governor, CPI (M), the Congress Party and even a section of BJP ever since the operative part of Justice Hegde’s report became public. The Congress party, which itself is at the centre of a series of financial scandals from 2G spectrum allocation to illegal gas exploration and pricing, wants Yeddyrappa to quit immediately. The country will do a great injustice to Justice Hegde’s painstaking report if the political parties, the state and national governments and the civil society take a tunnel view of the matter, restricting it to a single case in Karnataka alone for political mileage ignoring the bigger issue of illegal mining across the country. Yeddyurappa, like Madhy Koda of Jharkhand, would soon be forgotten without having much impact on the multi-billion dollar illegal mining activity involving corrupt politicians and administration across the country irrespective of their political affiliations.

The illegal iron ore mining in the Bellary-Hospet region of Karnataka is going on for some years with the knowledge and involvement of successive governments in the state, the national mining regulator and the union government in New Delhi. It was on even when Karnataka was ruled by the Congress Party though the Hegde report inexplicably skipped this aspect. It appears that the ill-gotten money from the illegal iron ore mining operations by Reddy brothers – Janardhan, Karunakara and Somasekhar --may have served as a strong anesthesia to paralyze the senses to those powerful oversight authorities to overlook the crime until the Karnataka Lokayukta took it upon himself to bust it.

The Justice Hegde report also suggests an illegal export of a total of 3.5 million tons of illegally mined ore worth $350-400 million in the international market in 2009-10 alone. Did the Reddy brothers mine ore outside the leased area? The report said it did. If so, what was the National Bureau of Mines (IBM), the regulator having an office at Bangalore, doing? Mining requires clear approval of the union environment ministry among several other central and state agencies. Was the former union environment minister, Jayram Ramesh, unaware of the illegal mining outside the leased area without the permission of his ministry? Ramesh had been hyperactive to prevent Vedanta from mining bauxite at Orissa’s Niyamgiri village and revoked the environment clearance certificate on the last day of his office in the ministry before the latest ministerial reshuffle. He could have had the Reddy brothers arrested on charges of illegal mining in contravention of environment regulations at Bellary. What did the union ministries of mines and commerce do to prevent the illegal export of illegally mined Karnataka and Andhra iron ore? Haven’t the Reddy brothers been in the news since 2002?

The Justice Hegde report underlines, among other things, huge contributions made by the Reddy brothers to some Yeddyurappa family connected charities. While recorded contributions to registered charities are legal, it would be interesting to know the names of all major recipients of unrecorded gratis from the Reddy brothers in exchange of their silence and indirect support to the illegal ore mining and trading activities. An immediate arrest of the Reddy brothers and their intensive grilling by professional sleuths drawn from both the CBI and state CID may throw some light on the subject and also to their political and bureaucratic network spread over Bellary, Bangalore, Belekeri, Hyderabad and New Delhi.

Illegal iron ore and coal mining are rampant in India, mostly with the blessings of the regulatory apparatus of both the state and union governments. Ask Coal India, India’s largest public sector enterprise by manpower, you will know how some 1,380 abandoned Eastern Coalfield (ECL) mines spread over 1,500 sq. km area in the Asansol-Ranigunj belt in West Bengal are being exploited by business mafia, having strong police and political affiliations, to raise millions of tons of coal, worth thousands of crores of rupees, at a very high risk to human lives. Unofficial estimates put the volume of illegally mined coal in the Asansol-Ranigunj region at 30,000 tonnes per day against ECL’s 37,600 tons per day out of legal operation. It was alleged before the last assembly polls that the Asansol coal mafia contributed substantially to the CPM election fund. The left party had, of course, shrugged off the allegation.

The illegal coal mine operators in West Bengal use thousands of poor and unemployed mine-hands, loaders and transporters, a good number of them being women and children, in the business. The wages paid vary from Rs. 30 to Rs.50 per worker per day. The compensation for accidental deaths varies from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 50,000 each depending upon the bargaining power of the family of the deceased. Workers die in hoards in these unsafe, officially closed mines while raising coal from abandoned seams.

Illegal mining near NH 33 passing through the Ranchi region at Jharkhand created a huge uproar in Parliament in 2009 forcing the then coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal make a statement at Rajya Sabha. The same year, the Supreme Court put a ban on quarrying in the Aravali hills range covering some 448 sq kms through the states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat to protect the eco system in the region. Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy’s son-in-law, Anil Kumar, was in the limelight for his alleged association with illegal mining in environmentally-sensitive areas covering some 554 sq km in Khammam and Warangal districts.

Earlier in 2004, there were reports of illegal uranium mining at Jadugudu in Jharkhand. After constant noise in the media and the state assembly, the government was obliged to set up a two-member committee in March, 2005 to investigate into the matter. Because of its super-sensitive nature of the complaint and its international implications, nothing much was known about the committee report. Security around Jadugudu was highly tightened to prevent illegal mining and dispatch of uranium ore. Most recently, Swami Nigamananda, who was in fast for days to protest against quarrying on the Ganga riverbed in the Hardwar district of Uttarakhand, died unsung having little impact on the authorities and the business criminals. Uttarakhand is a BJP-ruled state. The riverbed stone quarrying business is worth several hundreds of crores of rupees.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that the Union government is as much in collusion with the business of illegal mining as the respective state administrations, which accord land lease for mining under the rules framed by the Centre. Most of the people behind the illegal mining business are either influential politicians themselves or those having strong high-level political connections. The business is huge. Money making opportunities are almost unlimited. Investments are large. Its mafia-style operation could sometimes be very scary. There are more accidental deaths and intentional killings surrounding this business than in any other entrepreneurial activities.

The illegal mining business is among the largest generators of black money in India. In the coal-rich Dhanbad district, a popular adage is: ‘koila ki rang moila’. This is to convey that the colour of coal is black and so is its business. Iron ore too looks very dirty. Its mining need not necessarily be always a clean business either. Few will understand and appreciate this more than powerful politicians from mineral-rich states irrespective of their party symbols. (IPA Service)