New Delhi, Feb. 5: The Supreme Court today ordered two Lafarge firms to halt limestone mining in a Meghalaya pocket to feed a plant the French cement major has in neighbouring Bangladesh, a few kilometres away.

A three-judge green bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan passed the order on a plea by a tribal group after a special court committee concluded that the project had left the area — home to Cherapunji, which once received the world’s highest rainfall — starved of rain because of large-scale felling.

Lafarge Umiam Mining Private Ltd and Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd, which tribal association Shella Action Group has accused of misrepresenting facts to get environment clearances, have so far been carrying out the mining at Nongtrai in the East Khasi Hills district under an interim order of the apex court in 2007.

Late this evening, Shella spokesperson F. Chestland Iangri said in Shillong that his organisation was “happy”. A statement issued by Lafarge in Shillong said: “We are studying the details (of the order) and the next hearing is on March 19. We can export the already-mined limestone lying at the site for the time being.”

The court’s central empowered committee, set up to examine the state of India’s forests, painted a grim picture. Amicus curiae Harish N. Salve said all rainfall now went to Bangladesh.

Also, with the forests denuded, water flowed off instead of being retained in the hilly stretch, he said, adding the project was only benefiting Bangladesh.

“The whole thing (mining) should be unscrambled unless the company compensates for the loss (in terms of a cess) to the ecology of the area.”

The judges rejected arguments by the Meghalaya government, which had cleared the project, not to stay the mining saying it would hurt the state’s “investment climate” and its “aspirations (of industrialisation)”.

The two companies transport the limestone, a key input in cement production, to Bangladesh from the captive mines on an elevated conveyor belt that passes Shella — the village where the tribal association is based.

In November 2007, the Supreme Court had permitted the two firms to resume the mining as an interim measure after the Union ministry of environment and forests had directed them stop all non-forest activities.