Report of Geology and Mining Department, Jammu & Kashmir in Appeal No. 24 of 2022 in the matter of Raja Muzaffar Bhat Vs State Environment Impact Assessment Authority, J&K & Others).

The NGT, August 12, 2022 after observing that no replenishment study was conducted for the minor mineral blocks (reserved and allotted for mining river bed minerals) in Shalliganga nalla of district Budgam have restrained the mining activity from the said minor mineral blocks.

The report mentioned that the sediment replenishment study for Shaliganga nalla was carried out by the Geology and Mining Department using the Erosion Model of Garde and Kothyari which is a widely used empirical method to quantify the annual rate of sediment yield in a particular river system using GIS platform and spatial data of the watershed - land use, land cover, morphometry, discharge and precipitation data. The rate of sediment replenishment of Shaliganga nalla as per the study comes out to be 0.343 meters per annum.