Dehradun, May 24 -- The Uttarakhand high court has allowed 32 soapstone mining units in Bageshwar district to provisionally resume operations, given strict compliance with environmental norms, including regular slope stability monitoring exercises and ambient air quality checks. The division bench of Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and justice Subhash Upadhyay was hearing a batch of public interest litigations (PIL) concerning the environmental risks mining units posed to the region. The decision followed a report by a joint committee comprising the member secretary of the Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board (UKPCB) and the district mining officer. The committee had scrutinised 74 claims received up to April 8. The report said that only one out of the 74 units was fully compliant, 61 were "partially compliant", primarily because they had been non-operational for over a year and their safety and environmental permits had expired. Nine units were found non-compliant, while the rest were either cancelled or face cancellation. "We find no impediment in permitting the aforesaid 32 mining units which possess valid permission to operate and are otherwise compliant, to resume the mining operations provisionally," said the order. The court noted that assessments such as slope studies, could only be conducted on functional mines. In January 2025, the high court had imposed an immediate suspension on all mining activity in Bageshwar after a judicial report highlighted severe environmental and safety concerns, and stated that extensive mining had led to the formation of deep crevasses, raising the risk of landslides. The UKPCB was dorder to monitor these active sites and submit a comprehensive report on air quality and safety parameters in two months and decide on the renewal applications by 17 out of 42 units whose "Consent to Operate" (CTO) has lapsed, within 10 days. The court also addressed a jurisdictional bottleneck regarding Environmental Clearances (EC). Since the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) is currently defunct, its term having expired, the bench directed the MoEFCC to review the suspension of clearances for 65 leases and file an affidavit within four weeks. The matter will be heard after updated status reports from the state and Centre are submitted....