Hindalco develops a biodiversity park on the wasteland of Bagru Hills bauxite mine, reduces environmental damage

The world's largest aluminium rolling company, Hindalco which also ranks among the largest producers of primary aluminium in Asia has been able to reduce the environmental damage by developing a biodiversity park on the wasteland of a bauxite mine.

Hindalco’s commitment towards sustainable mining development efforts, the company has retrieved five hectares of land in its bauxite mine in Bagru Hills in Lohardaga, Jharkhand and has built a biodiversity park. The park accommodates a butterfly garden and has seasonal fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants, herbs, tea and flowers.

Aditya Birla Group subsidiary Hindalco’s Bagru Hills bauxite mine is located approximately 76km from Ranchi stands as one of the oldest bauxite mines in India, whose exploitation commenced in 1993. The mine delivers as much as 3.5 lakh tonnes of bauxite annually for Hindalco’s alumina refinery in Muri.

Sushant Guru, Head of Hindalco’s sustainable mining development wing said: “In March 2019, a plan was drawn up to reclaim nearly 5 Ha (12.35 acres) land in Bagru Hills for this pilot project. One of the key features for reclaiming the land was to preserve the topsoil of the land and store it away carefully.”

“Once mining from a patch of land is complete, the topsoil is put back after backfilling of the overburden A symbiotic fungus named VAM, which has been developed by Hindalco in association with the Coimbatore-based Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, is used to curate the topsoil to nurse its health and fertility back. In Bagru, a little over Rs 1 crore was gone into this project.”

Besides backfilling the land and dressing them for cultivation, other ways of livelihood promotion are also being explored. We also deliberately left voids during the landfill and created a pond through rainwater harvesting. Two years on, the locals here have taken up pisciculture and duck farming to add to their household incomes,” Guru added.

A resident from Bagru commented: “I have gained from duck farming. Last year, we were trained in duck farming by experts in Ranchi as there is an ever-growing demand for duck meat and eggs. We now sell ducks at INR 350 apiece.”

However, even rainwater reserved in these ponds is also being diverted to villages on the foothills of Bagru for agriculture and consumption, whereas as a part of the landscaping, the regained land has been topped with an environment-friendly conference room, auditorium and restrooms made out of bamboo.

In Bagru, the mining operations are spread over 163.5 hectares of land, of which 74 hectares of land will be taken up for the second phase of the project that has been secured with over INR 10 crore.

The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices 2021 has named Hindalco as the world’s most sustainable aluminium company.