Afforestation of Bauxite Mined Area in Central India

Madhya Pradesh is bestowed with a rich variety of minerals like Coal, Bauxite, Copper, Iron, Manganese and limestone. Mining activity contributes substantially to the economy of the state. Bauxite is exploited by open cast mines either by hand mining or machine mining. Good reserves of Bauxite are located in districts of Bilaspur, Mandla, Shahdol, Raigarh and Sarguja. Most of these areas carry sal forests. In Mandla district Bauxite mining is done by Balco using heavy machine in an area only 10 kms away from religious centre Amarkantak, source of river Narmada and Sone. Disturbed by the heavy mining operation and consequent deforestation and environmental pollution, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh sanctioned a Research Project for mine rehabilitation in the area. The present article describes the technique of reclaiming the area by afforestation. Trial plantations have been done from 1979 to 1981 over an area of 8 Ha and suitable species for this locality and site have been selected based on the experiments. Two Australian species Grevillea pleridifolia and Eucalyptus camaldulensis and some indigenous species like Chir pine, Sal and Karanj have come up well. Suggestions have been made to change the mining conditions to safeguard environmental hazards and undertake more rehabilitation measures.