The government of India’s Meghalaya state on 1 August annulled the decision taken by the previous state government to lease 422 hectares of land to the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) for pre-mining activities in South West Khasi Hill district. The decision was adopted after government-owned UCIL floated an expression of interest (EOI) for a mine uranium and processing plant in the district without the consent of the state government.
Meghalaya is India’s third richest uranium state after Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. The state accounts for 16% of India's uranium reserves, with deposits estimated to be around 9,500t and 4,000t respectively at Domiasiat and Wakhaji, both in the South West Khasi hills. However, the proposed open-cast uranium mining in the district has been hanging fire since 1992 after several groups expressed protested on health and environmental grounds.
