New Delhi, Mangroves covered in coal/iron ore dust, discharge of waste water in the area, and a risk of increased river water's turbidity due to coal spillage.

These are the observations of a sub-committee constituted by the Environment Ministry after a site visit at JSW Dharamtar Port's jetty facility, used to handle cargo for the nearby JSW Dolvi Steel Plant.

The jetty facility is located on the bank of Dharamtar Creek, in Dolvi village, Raigad district, Maharashtra.

The visit took place before an expert panel of the ministry recommended granting environment clearance and coastal regulation zone clearance to expand the facility's cargo handling capacity from 33.95 million tonnes per annum to 54.0 MTPA.

The JSW Dharamtar Port Private Limited has acknowledged the issues and agreed to comply with the sub-committee's recommendations to tackle them, according to the minutes of a meeting of the panel, known as expert appraisal committee , which took place last month.

Formed by the flow of the Amba river, the Dharamtar creek's mangrove coverage width is around 2.59 hectares, varying between 0.5 and 3.0 hectares in some locations, as per the study conducted by the sub-committee.

Note that JSW Foundation has been carrying out a mangrove restoration project at Dolvi since 2016, and has so far planted 2.5 million saplings with about 85 per cent survival rate, said the sub-committee in its site visit report.

However, while "the creek along the boundary of the port is full of well-developed mangrove", coal/iron ore dust has "completely covered the mangroves".

The report added, "Some attempts have been made to restrict the coal dust impact on the mangroves between the jetty and the land side of the port by planting some tree rows. But they seem to be not effective."

The sub-committee also observed spillage of coal dust and the waste water into the mangrove area between the jetty and the land area of the port.

The source of this dust seems to be the transfer of imported coal from the JSW Dharamtar Port to the nearby JSW Steel Dolvi Plant.

Coal spillage was also observed around the jetty area during the transfer process.

"Such spillage has the potential to increase turbidity in the river water and may lead to the accumulation of coal particles in the riverbed," the report said.

The sub-committee highlighted that the northern side of the jetty mangroves is well developed along the river, and could be impacted by the increased cargo handling at the jetty.

"Though the present proposal is only for mechanisation of the cargo handling operations, the increased cargo handling may impact the growth of these mangroves," the report added.

The sub-committee listed several recommendations, including segregating mangroves from the port area by creating at least 15 feet high screens, and preparing a specific mangrove conservation plan for northern side mangroves.

During the meeting, JSWDPPL noted these recommendations and agreed to implement them.

Source: Hindustan Times 

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