Following concerns that quarrying activities in the eastern hill areas in the district are likely to trigger landslips in vulnerable areas, the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has issued a warning that stringent action would be taken against quarries that resume quarrying in violation of its order to temporarily shut down the quarries in view of the heavy rain in the district.
District Collector Mir Muhammed Ali, who is also chairman of the DDMA, said the DDMA had ordered the laterite and granite quarries here to temporarily suspend quarrying activities in view of the continuing heavy downpour in the region. If any quarries were found to be engaged in quarrying activities in contravention of the DDMA’s order, their licence would be cancelled without prior information, he warned in a press release.
“I received four or five complaints about quarrying activities over phone and have passed on the information to the tahsildars concerned to check whether the complaint is genuine,” said Deputy Collector (Disaster Management) N.K. Abraham. Village officers concerned have been directed to send reports as and when the quarries were found to be continuing quarrying activities, he said. He said heavy vehicles were temporarily barred from using the Ghat road at Kottiyur Boys Town area. The Deputy Collector can be contacted on his mobile number 8547616034 to give information about violation of the orders, if any, he said.
As the western flank of the Western Ghats covering the eastern part of the State is identified as one of the major landslip-prone areas, parts of the eastern hill areas of the district have been identified as red zone. The district has 226 laterite quarries and 68 granite quarries. The granite quarries are all located in the eastern hill areas.
“Zone mapping of landslip-prone areas for the State has been done and we are not giving permits for quarrying activities in such e areas,” said K.R. Jagadeeshan, geologist at the district office of the Directorate of Mining and Geology. Many places where landslips occurred in the district are located in areas where there are no quarries, he noted.
Geology experts said that though there is no direct correlation between quarrying activities and landslips, quarrying may trigger landslips. Landslips have many parameters such as slope, rock type, soil type, surface runoff, they added.