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Who ll bell the cats?

Who ll bell the cats? "the last thing this place needs is an environmental journalist,' a senior secretary of Karnataka's mining department had said, referring to Bellary. Situated in mid-eastern Karnataka, drought-prone Bellary district is home to the mineral-rich Sandur hills. Extensive deposits of iron and manganese ores, besides those of red oxide, platinum, copper, asbestos, dolomite etc make the region a veritable gold-mine. Besides minerals, another natural resource the region boasts of is the waters of the Tungabhadra. Mindless exploitation of these resources is dealing the district its death-blow.

Iron ore mining began in the region in the early '60s; today, an area of 150 sq km in the three taluks of Bellary, Hospet and Sandur are under mining leases. The National Mineral Development Corporation, one of the lessees, takes pride in the environmental award granted it by the ministry of environment and forests in 1995. But the award is relative

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