Environmental Lawyer in Angul-Jharsuguda

Angul and Jharsuguda have become Odisha's heavy industry belt: Talcher's coalfields, thermal power stations, aluminium smelters, steel and sponge iron plants, and a steady stream of new units and expansions. People here usually come to us with one of two problems. Either a plant is polluting and the complaints have gone nowhere, or a plant wants to expand and the village wants its objections heard. In both, the State Pollution Control Board, Odisha is the first authority, the NGT Eastern Zone Bench at Kolkata hears the cases, and the Orissa High Court at Cuttack hears writs.

This page covers Angul district, including Talcher, and Jharsuguda district only. It explains the local industrial picture, which authority regulates what, how residents can complain and object to new projects so that their objections count, and what plants and contractors should do when the board sends a notice.

For matters elsewhere in Odisha, see our page on environmental law work in Odisha. For the nearby steel city, see our page on Rourkela.

The essentials

A plant near our village in Angul or Jharsuguda wants to expand. How do we object?

Object in writing, on time, at the public hearing. Most steel, aluminium, power and mining expansions need an environmental clearance, or an amendment to an existing one, under the EIA Notification 2006, and the larger ones go through a public consultation that includes a public hearing held in the district. The hearing is announced in advance, the draft EIA report and its summary are made available, and anyone affected can attend, speak and submit written objections.

Spoken objections are recorded in the minutes, but the minutes are written by officials and can be thin. Written objections, signed, dated and handed in with an acknowledgement, go into the record that the expert appraisal committee must consider. A good objection is specific: which village, which water source, which road, what pollution already exists, and what the draft EIA report gets wrong or leaves out. In a district like Angul, where Angul-Talcher has been listed as critically polluted in CPCB's CEPI assessments, the cumulative effect of one more expansion is a strong point to make.

If the clearance is granted despite the objections, an appeal lies to the NGT Eastern Zone Bench at Kolkata under section 16 of the NGT Act, within 30 days of the order being communicated. Our page on challenging an environmental clearance explains the grounds the tribunal looks at.

How Angul and Jharsuguda became Odisha's heavy industry belt

The Talcher coalfields in Angul district are among the largest in India, and the Ib Valley coalfield lies in the Jharsuguda area. Cheap coal close at hand drew thermal power stations, then power-hungry industries: aluminium smelters, which need enormous amounts of electricity, and integrated steel and sponge iron plants. Over the years these have grown, been expanded and been joined by smaller units and ancillary industries.

The pollution follows the same pattern as in other coal belts, with a few local features. Coal dust from mines and transport is constant. Power stations produce fly ash. Sponge iron and steel plants are a common source of smoke and dust complaints, particularly from villages close to the plant boundary, and residents often report that emissions look heavier at night. Smelters raise their own concerns about air emissions and solid waste. Along the Brahmani in Angul-Talcher, villagers worry about water drawn by industry and discharges reaching the river.

The other local feature is the pace of expansion. Many of the big plants in this belt have expanded capacity in stages, each stage needing its own clearance and consent. That is why the public hearing and the clearance appeal come up here more often than in districts where industry is static.

Angul-Jharsuguda problems and the authority to approach

The laws that come up most in this belt

Preparing for a public hearing in Angul or Jharsuguda

The clearance was granted anyway. Can we still appeal?

Yes, within 30 days of the order being communicated. For a member of the public, communication is usually taken from when the clearance is put in the public domain, for example on the ministry's website or in newspapers as the EIA Notification requires, though the exact starting point can be argued. Do not wait to find out. As soon as you learn the clearance has been granted, note the date and get the order.

The NGT does not rehear the whole project. It examines whether the clearance was granted properly: whether the public hearing was held fairly, whether objections were considered, whether the EIA report was accurate and complete, whether cumulative impact and water availability were properly assessed, and whether the conditions are adequate. Appeals succeed in different ways. Sometimes the clearance is set aside; more often the tribunal adds conditions, directs a fresh study or orders closer monitoring.

When Advocate B.K. Singh prepares an appeal against a clearance for an expansion in an industrial belt like Angul, he begins with the objections filed at the public hearing and the minutes, because a point raised then and ignored is far stronger on appeal than a point raised for the first time before the tribunal. Our guide on objections at EIA public hearings explains how to build that record.

How to complain about smoke and dust from a plant in Angul or Jharsuguda

These steps are for villages close to a steel, sponge iron, power or smelter plant. Each one builds the record that the board and the NGT will need.

Why steel and sponge iron plants draw so many complaints

Sponge iron and steel plants handle iron ore, coal and dolomite in large quantities, run kilns and furnaces, and produce dust at every stage: unloading, crushing, conveying, kiln operation and handling of char and slag. Air pollution control equipment such as electrostatic precipitators and bag filters is required by the consent, and the emission standards are set out in the schedules to the Environment (Protection) Rules 1986. The problem residents describe is usually not that the equipment does not exist, but that it is not run all the time.

That is why timing matters in the evidence. A video of a stack at 2 am, compared with the same stack at noon, shows what an inspection by day will miss. Ask the board for the plant's continuous emission monitoring data, where it is required to have it, and compare it with what the village recorded. Our guide on steel and rolling mill pollution covers the standards and equipment in more detail, and our page on industrial air pollution cases sets out the remedies.

The Brahmani, nalas and village water near the plants

Water complaints in Angul-Talcher centre on the Brahmani and the nalas that feed it. Villagers worry about two things: industry drawing large quantities of water, and discharge from plants, ash ponds and mines reaching streams. In Jharsuguda, similar concerns attach to local streams and reservoirs near the industrial areas.

To make a water complaint stick, identify the outfall or seepage point, test water upstream and downstream of it at a recognised laboratory, and get the board's own sample results under RTI. Where a drinking water source is affected, ask the district administration for testing by the public health department and for an alternative supply. Our page on river and floodplain cases explains what the NGT can order.

Talcher's mines, coal roads and railway sidings

Much of the daily misery in Angul-Talcher comes not from a single plant but from the movement of coal. Opencast mines throw up dust from blasting and haul roads. Coal travels to plants by conveyor, rail and a large number of trucks, and villages along the coal roads and near loading sidings live under a constant film of black dust. Overburden dumps beside villages add to it in the dry months.

These are not unregulated activities. Mines and sidings operate under consent and clearance conditions that usually require covered transport, water sprinkling, dust suppression at loading points and green belts. A village that records uncovered trucks, dry roads and unsprinkled sidings on dated video, and obtains the operator's conditions under RTI, can show a specific breach rather than a general grievance. Where a mine is working outside its leased area, that is a separate violation reported to the mining officer and the Collector; our guide on mining beyond the lease area explains how such cases are proved. For fly ash dumping and ash ponds, the issues are much the same as in other power districts and are covered in detail on our Korba page.

Our plant received a notice from the Odisha board. What now?

Work out what the document is. A show-cause notice needs a reply within the time given. A closure or disconnection direction under section 33A of the Water Act or section 31A of the Air Act is already an order, appealable to the NGT within 30 days of communication. A refusal of consent, including for an expansion, goes first to the state appellate authority. A notice that the plant has expanded without clearance or consent is the most serious of all, because it can lead to closure of the expanded capacity and compensation.

The reply should be about facts and proof: what was found, what has been fixed, and evidence of it, including invoices, photos, monitoring data and fresh reports from an accredited laboratory. For expansion notices, the reply must also deal with the sequence of approvals. Plants that built first and applied later are in a much weaker position than they were a few years ago. Our page on consent for expansion explains the approvals needed before capacity is added.

What we do at each stage for Angul-Jharsuguda matters

• Reading the papers. We read the notice, order, draft EIA report or clearance and tell you which forum and time limit apply.
• Public hearings. We help villages prepare written objections that point to specific gaps in the draft EIA report.
• Complaints. We draft complaints to the Odisha board and the Collector, and RTI applications for the plant's papers.
• NGT appeals and applications. We file appeals against clearances and original applications before the Eastern Zone Bench, appear by video conferencing or in person, and deal with joint committee reports.
• For companies. We draft replies to notices, revocation applications and appeals, and advise on approvals before an expansion. Fees are agreed in writing, stage by stage.

Mistakes we see in this belt

Villages often attend the public hearing, speak passionately and leave without handing in anything written. The minutes then record a line or two. Another common mistake is to wait for the clearance order to arrive by post. It will not. Watch for it and count 30 days from when it is put in the public domain.

Companies make their own mistakes. Some start civil work for an expansion before consent to establish, thinking it is only preparatory. Boards often see it differently. Some answer emission complaints with daytime monitoring reports when the village's complaint is about nights.

Related pages for coal, power and steel districts

For a coal and thermal power district with a strong focus on fly ash, see our page on Korba. For coal mines and power stations across the Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh border, see Singrauli. For coal, steel and power in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district, see Raigarh.