Environmental Aspects of Kota Stone Mining in South-East Rajasthan

Abstract

Mining is defined by UNEP as “the extraction of minerals from the earth. “The extraction of valuable minerals or other geological material from the earth is a process that begins with the exploration and discovery of mineral deposits and continues through processing to the closure and remediation of worked-out sites.

Mining is one of the most important economic activities of the country. The present trend is to opt for open cast mining in place of underground mining. At present country’s 25 lack hectare area is under mining lease conditions, out of which ninety percent area is subject to opencast mining techniques.

In general, all the mines affect their surrounding environment to a little or more extent, but opencast mining in particular lead to complex nature of environmental problems. In the present paper an attempt has been made to evaluate the mining activities of Kota Stone mining and their impact on environment.