Bio Diversity and Land Management
With our operations in diverse locations, our aim is to protect the long term health, function and viability of the natural environment and its components surrounding the operations. We ensure that our operations do not adversely impact the flora and fauna of the region and strive to create positive impacts. All our Greenfield projects and expansions undergo strict Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies to understand the status of the biodiversity value of the region in which we operate. Sterlite’s Copper India business, BALCO, MALCO have also prepared detailed biodiversity management plans along with the regional governments to help in biodiversity conservation activities.
We continue to develop green-belt in and around our operations with expert botanists and horticulturists engaged across our operations. Green belt is assessed from time to time for efficacy and appropriateness of species diversity and remedial measures are initiated wherever necessary. Several of our operations have undertaken plantation rallies involving school children and local communities. During FY 2010 we planted over 0.5 million saplings in and around our operations taking the plant population to over 3 million, which goes to indicate our commitment on "paint my planet green".