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      Lateritic Plateaus in the Northern Western Ghats, India; a Review of Bauxite Mining Restoration Practices

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            Abstract

            The northern Western Ghats are characterised by plateaus and hilltop carapaces formed from ferricretes rich in aluminium ore. Ferricretes in Western Ghats are home to a high number of endemic species, many with extremely limited distribution. The heterogeneity of microhabitats on ferricretes supports a great diversity of plant and animal communities. With little overburden and a high percentage of recoverable metals they are targeted for mining which leads to removal of all soil, vegetation and microhabitats. Vegetation and faunal diversity of unmined sites from Kolhapur district were studied providing reference data used to discuss restoration efforts on two mined sites in the region. Restoration efforts have faced ecological and legal hurdles. The international literature for the restoration of bauxite mines fails to demonstrate any successful model to return the species assemblage to a pre-mining profile.

            Restoration practices fail to adequately replicate microhabitat heterogeneity; often restoring sites to a different ecosystem from the original. The present mining policies do not take cognizance of the special nature of plateau habitats, ecology or the ecosystem functions they provide. We suggest a moratorium on mining of the high level lateritic plateaus in Western Maharashtra is justified until the biodiversity value and ecosystem services of the sites are fully understood and can be weighed against the economic gains from mining.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            Journal of Ecological Society
            2278-0823
            1 April 2015
            : 28
            : 1
            : 25-44
            Article
            10.54081/JES.024/03
            30ce5479-3a8d-4900-87b4-50fd91801d1c
            The Authors

            Published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International ( CC BY 4.0). Users are allowed to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially), as long as the authors and the publisher are explicitly identified and properly acknowledged as the original source.

            History

            All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).
            Ecology
            Lateritic Plateau,Ferricretes,Microhabitats,Bauxite,Mining,EIA,Mitigation,Western Ghats,ecological restoration,vegetation

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