But what about the indirect losses caused by illegal mining in Karnataka?

Lok Ayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde’s reference to the destruction of roads and laying the onus on overloaded mining trucks has been welcome by the people of coastal areas, who have for over 10 years suffered ever since illegal mining began in Hospet, Bellary and Sandhur.

Being an all-weather port, the miners had broken all rules in the book and managed to bring over 3,000 truckloads of iron ore every day to the New Mangalore port since 2001.

The stretch between Hassan and Mangalore on Bangalore-Mangalore Road (then National Highway 48) was perpetually bad causing many accidents resulting in the death of many people.

Economy too bore the brunt due to loss of man hours and slow movements of goods to and from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and other parts of Karnataka.

North Indian companies sustained heavy loss as their vehicles sustained heavy damages. The total losses, direct and indirect if calculated in terms of cost, could be astronomical, just like the figure that the Lokayukta report stated had inflicted the state exchequer due to illegal mining.

Oil companies also had their share of troubles as vehicles carrying refined oil products like petrol, aviation turbine fuel, high-speed diesel, naphtha and LPG had to move on bad roads and reach Bangalore and Chennai much behind the schedule.
KSRTC too reported heavy loss due to low mileage as the buses had to travel continuously at low speeds for hours. The mound of broken spring plates stored at KSRTC depots in Mangalore, Kundapur and Hassan shows how bad the roads were.

“Every vehicle going out from Mangalore and coming to Mangalore used to have suspension, steering and gear box problems and all the vehicles were giving 50% low mileage. The air-conditioned buses were the worst hit. Due to their low-ground clearance body structure and very sensitive suspension, every trip on those treacherous roads used to be a financial nightmare,” said an official of KSRTC.

“We wish that Lokayukta had taken into account all the indirect effects of the illegal mining too,” he said.

The State National Highway division of PWD has its own woes to tell. The Mangalore division of State National Highway covers the Shirady Ghats which was in a bad condition due to overloaded trucks. Hegde said on Wednesday that it was covered in the Lok Ayukta report.

“In just 10 years, the State Highways division has repaired the Shirady Ghats road more than 20 times and once in 2008 the 37-km stretch between Sakleshpur and Gundia was closed for more than 10 months for complete repair. Within one month, the roads were broken again as the government allowed mining companies to ply overloaded trucks,” said an engineer.

The Karwar division of the State National Highways which looks after the coastal roads heaves a sigh of relief. “Our engineers have had a very tough time during the overloaded mining traffic. The politicians, some of whom are named in the Lok Ayukta report, had attributed the bad roads to the engineers. The stretch between Bhatkal and Kumta, and Ankola and Karwar had gone bad several times due to overloaded trucks,” said a top official of the division.

Politicians including chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, Mangalore MP DV Sadananda Gowda, PWD minister CM Udasi and district in-charge minister Krishna Palemar and chairman of the Coastal Area Development Corporation B Nagaraja Shetty had tried to shield the fact that mining trucks were ruining the roads and said rain damaged the roads.

But after export of iron ore was stopped in the state, the Shirady Ghat roads despite the heavy rain had been good, say motorists.
It could be recalled that KSRTC had suspended all services from Mangalore to Bangalore via Shirady Ghats every year for one or two months and had diverted the Volvo services via Madikeri indefinitely in 2008-09.

People of coastal district now want all the indirect effects of illegal mining compiled in a report and the loss recovered from those indicted in the Lokayukta report.